he chief characteristics of the painter's
craftsmanship. The inspiration stage was practically passed when he took
the crayon in his hand; and to this circumstance probably is to be
assigned the absence of realism which arrests the attention of the
beholder."

Mr. Spielmann has instanced, in the above account, the tragic and lovely
_Captive Andromache_, exhibited in 1888; and we may further add
that exquisite painting of _Greek Girls playing at Ball_, of 1889; or
the still more exquisite _Bath of Psyche_, of the year following. All
three are full of technical delicacy and finesse. For other qualities
take that radiantly pictured myth, the _Perseus and Andromeda_, or the
_Return of Persephone_ (both of 1891); or the lovely _Clytie_ of 1892,
whose sunset background was painted at Malinmore, on the west coast of
Donegal; or the _Atalanta_ or the _Rizpah_ of 1893.

[Illustration: STUDY FOR "PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA"]

[Illustration: STUDY FOR "THE BATH OF PSYCHE"]

[Illustration: STUDY FOR "SOLITUDE"]

The memorable picture, first named of these, which shows Andromache at
the Well, is in particular a most characteristic example of the artist's
larger style. In it, true to his classic predilections, he gives a new
setting to the touching old story of Andromache's captivity. Following
up the earlier scene in the "Iliad," where Andromache begs her husband
Hector not to sally forth to battle, but to stay and defend the city,
and where, finding her prayers in vain, and weeping, she bids Hector
farewell, the picture shows the fulfilment of Andromache's fears and the
dire prophecy which Hector had recalled to his wife.

By way of contrast to this sombre canvas, take the glowing and brilliant
colours of the _Perseus and Andromeda_, one of the three pictures shown
at the Academy in 1891. The painting of the surroundings of Andromeda,
the deep blue water in the sea lagoon beneath, and these radiant
elemental people of air and light, provides such a glow of colour, as
haunts the eye for long after one has gazed one's fill upon it.
Something of the same feeling for the spirit that is in the forces of
the earth, lurks behind many of Leighton's representments of the classic
myths. It is certainly to be found, with a difference, in the _Return of
Persephone_, exhibited with the _Perseus_, which becomes in the
artist's hands a profound allegory of the return of Spring, with all
kind of symbolical meanings in the three figures of