Copy.]
Dear Mr. Leighton,—The portrait is beautiful, and would satisfy me entirely except for a want of strength about the brow, which I must write of, because I can't trust Robert himself with the message. I think the brow is feeble, less massive than his, with less fulness about the temples. In fact, your temple is hollow, instead of full. Will you look at it by the original? The eyes and mouth are exquisite. Your pencil has the expressiveness of another's brush.
How much I thank you for having put so much of my husband on paper is proved by the very insolence of my criticisms.—Most truly yours,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
April 1.
In the same category as the Michael Angelo studies may be placed the first sketch of "Samson Wrestling with the Lion," designed as an illustration for Dalziel's Bible. This drawing is also in the Leighton House Collection, also the original drawings for "The Spies' Escape" and "Samson at the Mill." The following was written with regard to it: "An animal model never 'sits.' The artist must catch the action he wants from fleeting suggestions. His imagination alone can guide his pencil when he depicts such action with realistic power. It is in a pencil drawing of a lion that we find the work that evinces, more distinctly perhaps than does any other of Leighton's utterances in art, the highest kind of imagination in the drawing of form in action, namely in the sketch of 'Samson Wrestling with the Lion' for the illustrations in Dalziel's Bible. Where, indeed, for vigour of invention, can we find a drawing to surpass these few pencil lines? The sinews in the legs and claws of the animal are drawn up, clenching the vacant air with a quivering grip; the tail straightened stiffly through the strain of the wrestling; the whole animal convulsed with the force of the struggle. This is treatment of form no model could suggest, no knowledge evolve, no labour or industry produce. A true imagination alone can inspire such vivid realism." The other subjects Leighton illustrated were "Death of Abel," "Moses Viewing the Promised Land," "Samson Carrying the Gates," "Abraham and the Angel," "Eliezer and Rebecca at the Well," "The Slaying of the First-born."
ORIGINAL DRAWING FOR "SAMSON AND THE LION" IN DALZIEL'S BIBLE
Leighton House Collection[ToList]