The life, letters and work of Frederic Leighton . work was insignifi-cant, compared to its having received this mark of Royalapproval. Hanging on the walls of the Academy through-out the season and being much talked about, the picture,combined with the painters charming personality, won forhim at once a prominent position. His friends of the happyRoman days, however, remained the nucleus of his real in-timacies. As can be gathered from his letters, he hadalready in Rome felt general society to be fatiguing andjfV unremunerative,^^ the interest in it never having compensatedhim for the physical
The life, letters and work of Frederic Leighton . work was insignifi-cant, compared to its having received this mark of Royalapproval. Hanging on the walls of the Academy through-out the season and being much talked about, the picture,combined with the painters charming personality, won forhim at once a prominent position. His friends of the happyRoman days, however, remained the nucleus of his real in-timacies. As can be gathered from his letters, he hadalready in Rome felt general society to be fatiguing andjfV unremunerative,^^ the interest in it never having compensatedhim for the physical exertion and weariness it —and a more or less stolid temperament—are requi-site in order to combat, with any satisfaction, the wearand tear of late hours, and contact with mere acquaintancesand strangers whose personalities carry with them no specialinterest. Leighton found no pleasure in such intercoursesufficient to overbalance its sterility, for he possessed neitherrobust health nor much equanimity of temperament. He \^ \i. O 00 CX) «-l ?*- 3 o .Q 3 o O Q o X H t3 1—( *—1 ^ O Q ,£3 1—1 ^ O 5 ^ (J > • «H -t-> Oj »4 o &> WATTS—SUCCESS—FAILURE 223 could enjoy with ecstasy those things which dehghted him,but had Httle of that even current of patient contentment,the normal condition of those who can tolerate cheerfully—and even with pleasure—the herding in crowds with mereacquaintances. Circumstances combined in making Leightonsdisinclination to indiscriminate visiting often extreme vitality when in company, his notable gifts asa talker and as a linguist, the high social standing of manyof his most intimate friends, naturally gave the impressionthat he was made for the sort of success which is the aimof many living in the London world. That he never availedhimself of all the opportunities that offered themselves wasconsidered by many as a sign of conceit and could have been farther from t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidlifelettersw, bookyear1906
