E (1855)]
Among other people whom Leighton met in Rome were George Sand, Mrs.
Kemble, George Mason the painter, of _Harvest Moon_ fame, Gibson the
sculptor, and Lord Lyons. Like Robert Browning, let us add, he was
readily responsive to the quickening of his contemporaries, and
vigorously studied the present in order that he might the better paint
the past, and put live souls into the archaic raiment of Cimabue and old
Florence.
He was working hard all this while, with a devotion and concentration
that impressed other friends beside Thackeray, upon his picture of
_Cimabue's Madonna_, which was exhibited in the Academy of 1855, and as
the work of an unknown hand made a distinct sensation. It was discussed,
angrily by some, delightedly by others. The criticism which Rossetti,
Mr. Ruskin, and other critics bestowed upon it in the press or in
private correspondence[1] will come more fitly into our later pages,
when we turn to deal with contemporary opinions upon Leighton's work.
Enough to say here that it won fame for the artist at a stroke. The
Queen bought it for L600, having bespoken it, I believe, before it left
his studio, and hung it eventually in Buckingham Palace. With this
encouraging first great success, the probationary stage of our artist's
history may be said to close.
CHAPTER II
YEAR BY YEAR--1855 TO 1864
The Academy of forty years ago was very different from that we know
to-day. It was held in the left wing of the National Gallery, and had
not nearly so much space at its disposal as it has in its present
quarters at Burlington House. The exhibition of 1855 contained few
pictures, compared with the multitudinous items of the present shows.
Generally speaking, the exhibition was of a heavier, more Georgian
aspect, in spite of certain Pre-Raphaelite experiments and other signs
of the coming of a younger generation. Sir Charles Eastlake was
President. Professor Hart was delivering lectures to its students, full
of academic, respectable intelligence, if little more; lectures which
those who are curious may find reported in full in the "Athenaeum" of
that time.
More interesting was the appearance of Mr. Ruskin as commentator on the
pictures of the Academy in this year, the first in which he issued his
characteristic "Academy Notes." His long, and, all things considered,
remarkably appreciative criticism of the _Cimabue's Madonna_ we discuss
elsewhere (p. 103). Of another picture of Italy by
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