The little picture of _Capri at Sunrise_ was hung in the Academy of 1860, the painter's only contribution of that year. In the year following, we find another small picture of Capri, together with five others, some of which played their part in winning for the artist his wider recognition. [Illustration: A LEMON TREE A PENCIL STUDY] [Illustration: BYZANTINE WELL HEAD A PENCIL STUDY] Meanwhile, the artist was drawing his London ties closer. In 1860 he took up his abode at 2, Orme Square, where he continued to reside until he built his famous house in Holland Park Road, some years later. His art did not for this reason become more like London, or more infected with that British singularity which some critics would seem to demand. On the contrary, Italy and the South, the glow of colour, the perfection of form, the plastic exquisiteness, which mark for us his mature performances, and which follow after classic ideals, were more and more clearly to be discerned in the remarkable cycle of pictures associated with this part of his career. In 1861 he painted portraits of his sister, _Mrs. Sutherland Orr_, and of _Mr. John Hanson Walker_, the former shown at the Academy, where also hung _Paolo e Francesca_, _A Dream_, _Lieder ohne Worte_, _J. A.--a Study_, and _Capri--Paganos_. Rossetti, writing of this exhibition, says: "Leighton might, as you say, have made a burst had not his pictures been ill-placed mostly--indeed, one of them (the only very good one, _Lieder ohne Worte_) is the only instance of very striking unfairness in the place."[2] In 1862 there were no fewer than six of the artist's pictures at the May exhibition of the Academy: the _Odalisque_, a very popular work, shows a draped female figure, in a very Leightonesque pose, with her arm above her head, leaning against a wall by the water. She holds a peacock's feather screen in her left hand, while a swan in the water at her feet cranes its head upwards towards her; _Michael Angelo nursing his dying Servant_, a group of two three-quarter length figures; the servant reclining in an armchair with his head resting against the shoulder of Michael Angelo--a fairly powerful but somewhat academic version of the incident--which looks at first glance like the work of a not very important "old master;" _The Star of Bethlehem_, showing one of the Magi on the terrace of his house looking at the strange star in the East, while below are indications of a revel he has just left. _Duett_, _Sisters_, _Sea Echoes_, and _Rustic Music_, also belong to this year. In 1863 he showed _Eucharis_, a half-length figure of a white-robed girl, with a basket of fruit on her head; _Jezebel and Ahab_; _A Cross-bow Man_; and _A Girl Feeding Peacocks_; with these we complete the list of his work as an outsider. [Illustration: GOLDEN HOURS (1864)] CHAPTER III YEAR BY YEAR--1864 TO 1869