Still more popular was his _Music Lesson_, another work in the same exhibition. To realize the full charm of this picture, one must see the original; for much depends upon the beauty of its colouring. Imagine a classical marble hall, marble floor, marble walls, in black and white, and red--deep red--marble pillars; and sitting there, sumptuously attired, but bare-footed, two fair-haired girls, who serve for pupil and music-mistress. The elder is showing the younger how to finger a lyre, of exquisite design and finish; and the expression on their faces is charmingly true, while the colours that they contribute to the composition,--the pale blue of the child's dress, the pale flesh tints, the pale yellow hair, and the white and gold of the elder girl's loose robe, and the rich auburn of her hair,--are most harmonious. A bit of scarlet pomegranate blossom, lying on the marble ground, gives the last high note of colour to the picture. Two other pictures of 1877 must not be omitted. _Study_ shows us a little girl (the present Lady Orkney), in Eastern garb, diligently reading a sheet of music which lies before her on a little desk. There is great charm in the simple grace of the picture and in the softly brilliant colouring of the child's costume. Very delightful, too, is the portrait of _Miss Mabel Mills_ (now the Hon. Mrs. Grenfell), habited in black velvet, and a large dark hat with coloured feathers, set against a grey background, a picture here reproduced. _A Study_, _An Italian Girl_, and a _Portrait of H. E. Gordon_, were all three shown at the Grosvenor Gallery the same year. [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF THE HON. MABEL MILLS (1877)] [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF CAPTAIN RICHARD BURTON (1876)] Another picture, in which a simple theme is treated in a classic fashion--not dissimilar to that employed for the _Music Lesson_--is _Winding the Skein_, a lovely painting exhibited 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 mediæval 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"]