_Lord Leighton_, the late highly cultured President of the Royal Academy, was the most dignified representative of this tendency. He was a Classicist through and through--in the balance of composition, the rhythmical flow of lines, and the confession of faith that the highest aim of art is the representation of men and women of immaculate build. In the picture galleries of Paris, Rome, Dresden, and Berlin he received his youthful impressions; his artistic discipline he received under Zanetti in Florence, under Wiertz and Gallait in Brussels, under Steinle in Frankfort, and under Ingres and Ary Scheffer in Paris. Back in England once more, he translated Couture into English as Anselm Feuerbach translated him into German with greater independence. Undoubtedly there has never been anything upon his canvas which could be supposed ungentlemanlike. And as a nation is usually apt to prize most the very thing which has been denied it, and for which it has no talent, Leighton was soon an object of admiration to the refined world. As early as 1864 he became an associate, and in November 1879 President of the Royal Academy. For sixteen years he sat like a Jupiter upon his throne in London. An accomplished man of the world and a good speaker, a scholar who spoke many languages and had seen many countries, he possessed every quality which the president of an academy needs to have; he had an exceedingly imposing presence in his red gown, and did the honours of his house with admirable tact. But one stands before his works with a certain feeling of indifference. There are few artists with so little temperament as Lord Leighton, few in the same degree wanting in the magic of individuality. The purest academical art, as the phrase is understood of Ingres, together with academical severity of form, is united with a softness of feeling recalling Hofmann of Dresden; and the result is a placid classicality adapted _ad usum Delphini_, a classicality foregoing the applause of artists, but all the more in accordance with the taste of a refined circle of ladies. His chief works, "The Star of Bethlehem," "Orpheus and Eurydice," "Jonathan's Token to David," "Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon," "The Daphnephoria," "Venus disrobing for the Bath," and the like, are amongst the most refined although the most frigid creations of contemporary English art. [Illustration: LEIGHTON. CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE. (_By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., the owners of the copyright._)] [Illustration: _Portfolio._ LEIGHTON. SIR RICHARD BURTON.]