est, and charmed the artist, not only with his
exceptional beauty of line and play of muscle, but also with the
artistic contrast of energy and languor. But that he might not lay
himself open to the charge that the work was a glorification of
indolence, the sculptor made concession to what after all was an
artistic suggestion, and placed under the yawner's foot

"The glorious wreath of laurel leaves
Heel trodden and despised."

The graceful statuette of a little girl who is alarmed by a toad on the
edge of a pool or stream of water, called _Needless Alarms_, appeared at
the same time; and was so much admired by the President's colleague, Sir
John Everett Millais, that he wished to purchase it, whereupon Sir
Frederic presented it to him, and received, in return, the charming
picture of _Shelling Peas_, which Sir John painted specially for this
pleasant exchange. In 1886 also appeared the _Decoration in Painting for
a Music Room_, destined for New York, which is illustrated[7] by
the completed work, and its preliminary studies from life for it.
_Gulnihal_, a single figure, is the only other painting exhibited at the
Academy in this year.

[Illustration: THE LAST WATCH OF HERO (1887)
_By permission of the Manchester Corporation_]

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF THE LADY SYBIL PRIMROSE (1885)]

In 1887 appeared a picture which seems scarcely to have received its due
appreciation, _The Jealousy of Simaetha the Sorceress_. This is a
seated figure in yellow and white drapery, with a purple mantle wrapped
around her shoulders; a well-wrought, finely-rendered work. _The Last
Watch of Hero_, also first seen this year, is now in the Manchester
Corporation Gallery. It is in two compartments; in the upper, and
larger, Hero, clad in pink drapery, is seen drawing aside a curtain and
gazing out over the sea. Below, in the smaller panel, is the body of the
dead Leander, on a rock washed by the waves. A quotation from Sir Edwin
Arnold's translation of Musaeus was appended to its title:

"With aching heart she scanned the sea-face dim.
* * * * *
Lo! at the turret's foot his body lay,
Rolled on the stones and washed with breaking spray."

A picture of a little girl with yellow hair and pale blue eyes, entitled
with a verse by Robert Browning:

"Yellow and pale as ripened corn
Which Autumn's kiss frees,--grain from sheath,--
Such was her hair, while her eyes be