"AT A READING-DESK." 1877
By permission of Messrs. L.H. Lefevre & Son, the owners of the Copyright[ToList]
Different as a picture could be was the exquisite "Music Lesson" of 1877. Again we have the lovely little Cleobouline, her delicate fingers learning to make music on a mandoline. The grouping and grace in the attitude of the teacher and the pupil, the ease and pleasant arrangement of the draperies, the texture and fine distinction in the feeling and technique of the work, can only be suggested by a reproduction; whereas to appreciate in any way the delicate brightness and charm of the colour is impossible without seeing the original. This is the one of all Leighton's paintings which—perhaps more than any other—conclusively contradicts the statement made, that "the inspiration stage was practically passed when he took the crayon in his hand." Another Cleobouline also appeared in the same Academy Exhibition—as fascinating as the little lady learning music; "Study" it was called—a child in a delightfully painted glistening pink silk dressing-gown, sitting cross-kneed on an Eastern carpet before an inlaid prayer-desk. Very characteristic of Leighton's bewitching painting of children's feet are the little toes of the child peeping out between the folds of pink drapery. The finest woman's portrait Leighton ever painted appeared the same year as a "Music Lesson." This was Miss Mabel Mills.[47] The breadth and delicacy in the modelling of the cheek and throat rivals the work of Greek sculpture. The most serious work exhibited in 1877 was the bronze version of Leighton's "Athlete Strangling a Python,"[48] the small sketch of which was made in 1874. This statue showed to the world his power as a sculptor. Every work he modelled evinced in an equal degree his consummate ability as such, though the more flexible treatment—in the modelled sketches for the "Python," the sleeping group in "Cymon and Iphigenia,"[49] and the "Perseus and Andromeda"—may carry with it a greater charm than is found in the completed statues. The following letters from the French sculptor Dalou, the painter George Boughton, and Sir Edgar Boehm are testimonies to the effect which the "Python" in bronze, and the sketch, produced on artists at the time they were executed:—
217a Glebe Place, Chelsea, S.W.,
2 Mai 1877.
Mon cher Leighton,—Si mes humbles félicitations peuvent vous toucher j'en serais trés heureux.
J'espérais vous voir lundi dernier à l'Academy et vous complimenter comme vous le meritez pour votre belle statue. À quoi sert de gratter toute sa vie un morceau de terre, quand près de soi on voit tout à coup surgir un chef d'œuvre d'une main à qui la sculpture était jusque là restée étrangère?
Si j'étais envieux ce serait une belle occasion pour moi, mais loin de là j'ai été trés heureux d'admirer votre œuvre, et trés flatté de l'honneur qu'on a fait à ma pauvre terre cuite, en la plaçant en pendant avec votre bronze; c'est encore un bon souvenir de plus qui me viens de l'Academy et de vous, mon cher Leighton, car je sais toute la part que vous avez prise au déplacement dont ma figure a été l'objet.
Aussi croyez que je suis heureux de pouvoir me dire votre sincère admirateur et trés reconnaissant ami,
J. Dalou.