Studio: international art (1.1893)

Artists as Craftsmen—No. I. Sir Frederic Leighton

"CYMON "

approve them. The grace of their pose and the
sculpturesque treatment, which distinguishes them,
may be more readily appreciated from the illustra-
tions than from any effort to explain in words why
the position of a limb or the flow of a drapery gives
that critical pleasure which we admit by calling the
work that provokes it beautiful. The dignity of
the figures is apparent without any analysis. This
large repose is not merely supreme inaction, as
exemplified in the great bronze idols of Japan, but
a quality that may be preserved even when the
subject is represented in more or less violent action.
It is hard to describe it since the words we oftenest
employ are, as a rule, borrowed from the art: monu-
mental simplicity, statuesque dignity, and the like,
are but verbal phrases to express that the supreme
merit of sculpture is to be sculptural. Therefore
in claiming for Sir Frederic Leighton's work that

it fulfils this first essential of sculpture, that what-
ever its size,, it has the distinction and nobility
of the highest form of art, all other questions may
be left untouched, for any work of art possessing
these greater virtues is apt to include those lesser
qualities which otherwise assume importance beyond
their rightful proportion.

It is too late in the day to talk of Sir Frederic
Leighton's house, which has been described and
illustrated as often as its neighbour, Holland House
itself. The interior of the fine studio, that has an
air of home rather than of a mere show-place, is
familiar to thousands who have never crossed its
threshold.

" You are early," were his first words. " I have
so many engagements, I am compelled to keep

THE SLUGGARD " (SKETCH IN CLAY)

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