(At Leighton House, Kensington)
The strength and statuesque dignity of this figure are not less
remarkable than the power with which the subject as a whole is
suggested. The picture has a wonderful degree of dramatic effect, and
is especially impressive in its reticence and scholarly restraint. The
admirable drawing of the draperies should be particularly noted.
[Illustration: PLATE IV.--CLYTEMNESTRA]
======================================================================
This picture was painted in Paris, whither he had gone in the autumn of
1855. He made that city his headquarters for some two years during
which he worked assiduously, and found many friends among the leaders
of French art. In 1858 he stayed for a time in London, and by coming
in contact with some of the younger painters, who were then
contributing an important chapter to our art history--with men like
Millais, Rossetti, and Holman Hunt--he obtained a closer insight into
certain artistic movements of which, while abroad, he had probably
heard but the faintest echoes. By this time the Pre-Raphaelite
rebellion had produced its effect and was not in need of his support,
but it may fairly be assumed that, if the need had arisen, he would
have been on the side of those who were fighting for the emancipation
of British art.
In the following year he was again in Italy, and during the spring he
worked in Capri; it was there that he executed that marvellous drawing
of the "Lemon Tree," which has always, and with justice, been counted
among his masterpieces; but in 1860 he decided to settle in London, and
established himself in Orme Square, Bayswater. Life in London did not,
however, mean that his excursions to other countries were to be
abandoned, he continued regularly to spend some months in each year in
travel abroad, and he visited in succession Spain, Damascus, Egypt, and
other parts of the East, besides renewing his acquaintance with many
places which he had seen before. These wanderings were always
productive; they added much to his stock of material, and the results
of them are embodied in a number of his pictures, as well as in that
long series of open air sketches which show how sensitive he was to the
beauty of nature, and how delicately he could interpret her moods.
======================================================================