Leighton formed his method of painting from these general maxims, and he painted my portrait at Lerici on these principles as an experiment, and then in 1878 we adopted the system definitely. For this portrait he had four sittings--one for the drawing and the monochrome chiaroscuro, one for the local colours; then, having covered all with grey, he painted the lights with red, white, and black, making use of the thoroughly dried grey beneath for his half-tints. With scumbles he completed the colour and the modelling.
[Illustration: "THE LIGHT OF THE HAREM." 1880 By kind permission of the Directors of the Leicester Gallery]
[Illustration: "AND THE SEA GAVE UP THE DEAD WHICH WERE IN IT" Sketch for Complete Design, 1892]
[Illustration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN FRIEZE, "MUSIC." 1886 Leighton House Collection]
[Illustration: STUDY FOR "ANDROMEDA." 1890 Leighton House Collection]
[Illustration: FROM SKETCH IN CLAY FOR PERSEUS, IN THE PICTURE "PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA." 1891]
[Illustration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN PANEL IN ROYAL EXCHANGE--"PHOENICIANS BARTERING WITH BRITONS" Leighton House Collection]
[Illustration: "CYMON AND IPHIGENIA." 1884 The Corporation of Leeds]
[Illustration: STUDY IN COLOUR FOR "CYMON AND IPHIGENIA." 1884 By permission of Mrs. Stewart Hodgson]
[Illustration: STUDY FOR SLEEPING GROUP FOR "CYMON AND IPHIGENIA" Given by Lord Leighton to G.F. Watts, O.M., and given by the latter to the Collection in Leighton House, 1883]
As the exquisite fragments in pencil of cyclamen, bramble and vine branch,[68] explain most intimately Leighton's genius as a draughtsman, so this head of Neruccia appears to me, together with one other work, to explain most explicitly his genius as a painter--a modeller with the brush. In 1890 Leighton painted "The Bath of Psyche."[69] The modelling in the torso of this figure, and in the head of Neruccia, reach the zenith as exemplifying Leighton's individuality as a painter. They might truly earn for him the title--Praxiteles of the brush.
It would be tedious for writer and reader alike to describe too minutely the special characteristics of even the most notable pictures painted during the seventeen years when Leighton occupied the position of President of the Royal Academy. Words are but poor interpreters of painting such as his. Eighty canvases, two statues, and two designs--the reverse of the Jubilee Medallion, "And the sea gave up its dead which were in it"--were exhibited at the Royal Academy; eighteen slighter works at the Suffolk Street, and twenty-three at the Grosvenor Galleries. On referring to the list in the Appendix it will be realised how great was the amount of labour involved in the achievement of many of these works, considering their size, the complication of their designs, and also the completeness of their finish. It must also be remembered that Leighton made many hundreds of studies for his pictures. More especially numerous were these for the designs "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it," "The Dance, Decorative Frieze"; "Cymon and Iphigenia"; "Music, a Frieze"; "Design for the reverse of the Jubilee Medallion," "Captive Andromache," "Perseus and Andromeda," "Return of Persephone," "The Garden of the Hesperides," "Rizpah," "Summer Slumbers," "The Spirit of the Summit," "Flaming June," "Phoenicians Bartering with Britons," and "Clytie." When all these achievements are taken into account it will be realised that Leighton, to the end, however important his duties outside his studios, was true to his vocation, and proved himself the "workman first and the official after."