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 ornamental one,--some such golden sinecure as that of the old High Chamberlains. Nothing could be more mistaken. "Not everybody," wrote the late Mr. Underhill, who for some time, as private secretary to Sir Frederic Leighton, had special opportunities of knowing, "is aware of the tax upon a man's time and energy that is involved in the acceptance of the office in question. The post is a peculiar one, and requires a combination of talents not frequently to be found, inasmuch as it demands an established standing as a painter, together with great urbanity and considerable social position. The inroads which the occupancy of the office makes upon an artist's time are very considerable. There is, on the average, at least one Council meeting for every three weeks throughout the whole of the year. There are from time to time general assemblies for the election of new members and for other purposes, over which the President is bound, of course, to preside. For ten days or a fortnight in every April he has to be in attendance with the Council daily at Burlington House, for the purpose of selecting the pictures which are to be hung in the Spring Exhibition. He has to preside over the banquet which yearly precedes the opening of the Academy, and he has to act as host at the annual conversazione. Finally, it is his duty every other year to deliver a long, elaborate, and carefully prepared 'Discourse' upon matters connected with art, to the students who are for that purpose assembled. It is a post of much honour and small profit." [Illustration: SISTER'S KISS (1880) _By permission of the Fine Art Society_]