| Description | Dear Signor
You have perhaps been wondering at not hearing from me, but the fact is that immediately after the business of the Council was over on Thursday I rushed out of town for a short rest & only returned last night. I was much done up and wanted to sulk alone away from London. Today I have deferred writing till I should have been to B[urlington] House & seen the members of the hanging committee & especially Calderon with whom I knew you had been in correspondence & with whom I had talked over the subject of your letter before leaving. I need not tell you that whilst I cannot admit that his feelings to'ards you are the same as mine or that you are to him the same very dear & honored friend that you are to me, he entertains for you a truly affectionate & appreciative friendship. We took thererfore your letters warmly to heart. He tells me that he has written to you & I first that he has said exactly what I myself feel. You know how keenly I appreciate & how deeply I acknowledge the high tone & the dignity to say nothing of other qualities, which are ever present in whatever comes from your mind, attributes too rare alas! in the Art of our day. I feel that this mobility of thought & imaginative force are fully present in your 'Eve'. Calderon tells me you fear its fresco like look. To me however, this quality seems thoroughly suited to the work. On the other hand under the strange light of an Exhibition Room one feels that there are perhaps inequalities in the execution and a lack in places of completeness that you would be the first to acknowledge and see in the new surroundings. These are however, much lessened by a removal from the immediate level of the eye - now the question, I gather, is what you, as a matter of feeling, think about its place. It is now in the big room in one of those transverse angles (like your Cain a few years ago - and Holl's fine Duke of Cambridge) but there is a moderate sized picture under it - that the picture gains in finish were (sic) it is there can be no doubt. It would look leess well on the level of the eye. Nevertheless we are anxious to know Calderon & I what you feel about its not being 'on the line'. Just as a full length portrait is not just on the line as a rule. Nothing would grieve me more, few things as much, as that you should be pained in this matter; but this you know. Write me a line & believe me
Ever yours affec'ly
Fred Leighton |