ibited at the Academy in 1878.
In this we see two Greek maidens as naturally employed as we often see
English girls in other surroundings. This idealization of a familiar
occupation--so that it is lifted out of a local and casual sphere, into
the permanent sphere of classic art, is characteristic of the whole of
Leighton's work. He, like Sir L. Alma-Tadema and Albert Moore, contrived
also to preserve a certain modern contemporary feeling in the classic
presentment of his themes. He was never archaic; so that the classic
scenarium of his subjects, in his hands, appears as little antiquarian
as a mediaeval environment, shall we say, in the hands of Browning.
_Nausicaa_, a full-length girlish figure, in green and white draperies,
standing in a doorway, and _Serafina_, another single figure, and _A
Study_, were also shown the same year. At the Grosvenor Gallery were a
_Portrait of Miss Ruth Stewart Hodgson_, a demure little damsel in
outdoor attire, and a _Study of a Girl's Head_, full face.

[Illustration: NAUSICAA (1878)]

[Illustration: STUDY FOR "ELIJAH AND THE ANGEL"]

CHAPTER V

YEAR BY YEAR--1878 TO 1896

On November 13th, 1878, Frederic Leighton was elected President of the
Royal Academy, in succession to Sir Francis Grant, and immediately
received the honour of knighthood.

In 1879 Leighton sent eight contributions to the Academy, not one of
which, with the possible exception of the _Elijah_, perhaps, has been
counted among his masterpieces. Four of them belong to that group of
ideal figure paintings which almost constitute a _genre_ in themselves:
_Biondina_, _Catarina_, _Amarilla_, and _Neruccia_, a girl with a red
flower in her hair, in white dress, against a dark background. The
finely austere _Elijah in the Wilderness_ was an addition to the notable
group of Scriptural paintings. In this picture the nude figure of the
prophet is seen reclining on a rock, with head and arms thrown back,
while beside him stands an angel holding bread and water. The striking
and powerful _Portrait of Professor Costa_, the _Portrait of the
Countess Brownlow_, and a portrait study, completed the list of the
year's contributions, the largest number ever sent in by Leighton,
before his election or afterward. This year ten of his landscape-studies
in oil were exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery.

It may be thought by the outsider that the coveted office of the
President of the Royal Academy of Arts is, in a way, an