GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



if he tried ; and would not if he could ; who has been true to his 

 own ideals, and finds that the nearer he gets to them, the farther 

 he is from those of his critic must suffer in silence, and wait 

 patiently, as he has already done for twenty or thirty years, for 

 the advent of a more catholic school of art- criticism. He is 

 inarticulate save through his art, as most artists are and indeed, 

 in the words of that wise and witty Royal Academy Keeper from 

 whose humorous letter written when once I rushed into print 

 I shall quote again : " We must beware of the inkpot our business 

 is to paint let others talk the men who row don't speak ; it is 

 the idle fellows running along the bank who shout : ' Ha, you 

 duffer, why don't you pull ? ' 



It was just the recognition of the fact that men do not all tread 

 the same path in reaching their goal that though all roads are 

 supposed to lead to Rome, there is, in art, but one reliable finger- 

 post, and that is sincerity that made Lord Leighton such an 

 excellent critic, and helped to make of him the ideal President. 

 Those who, like myself, have benefited by his wise advice, have the 

 best possible reasons for stating, that though his own instincts 

 might lead him in a certain direction, he took into account that 

 the natural bent of a student in whom he might conceivably 

 discern promise, might be in another. Earnestness and industry 

 were his watchwords. Himself an ardent lover of ordered and 

 classical art, cheap and merely showy work winning easy success 

 but often concealing ignorance and impatience of labour were 

 abhorrent to him. Possibly he did not go so far as Sir Joshua 

 Reynolds, who held that perseverance is genius ; but he certainly 

 believed that however fanciful and free its ultimate application, 

 fine work must fundamentally depend on sound drawing and good 

 painting, and that these must of necessity be based on the reverent 

 study of Nature. In his relations with us students, and in his 

 lessons on composition, he refused to consider a mere " sketch " 

 at all. He insisted that the design presented to him for criticism 

 should be clearly worked out, and if for a figure picture, should 

 be worked out from living models a matter of considerable expense 

 to young artists, but and I speak from experience, the lesson that 

 followed was well worth the outlay ! 



Lord Leighton was tolerant of everything except insincerity ; 

 but his tolerance was never put to a very severe test, for the first 



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