The result of these studies and of the experience of years was that Leighton and I definitely adopted the following method. Take a canvas or panel with the whitest possible preparation and non-absorbent--the drawing of the subject to be done with precision and indelible. On this seek to model in monochrome so strongly that it will bear the local colours painted with exaggeration, and then the grey, which is to be the ground of all the future half-tones; on this paint the lights, for which use only white, red, and black, avoiding yellow, and, stabbing (botteggiando) with the brush while the colour is wet, make the half-tints tell out from the grey beneath, which should be thoroughly dry. When all is dry, finish the picture with scumbles (spegazzi), adding yellow to complete the colour. Leighton formed his method of painting from these general maxims, and he painted my portrait at Lerici on these principles as an experiment, and then in 1878 we adopted the system definitely. For this portrait he had four sittings--one for the drawing and the monochrome chiaroscuro, one for the local colours; then, having covered all with grey, he painted the lights with red, white, and black, making use of the thoroughly dried grey beneath for his half-tints. With scumbles he completed the colour and the modelling. [Illustration: "THE LIGHT OF THE HAREM." 1880 By kind permission of the Directors of the Leicester Gallery] [Illustration: "AND THE SEA GAVE UP THE DEAD WHICH WERE IN IT" Sketch for Complete Design, 1892] [Illustration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN FRIEZE, "MUSIC." 1886 Leighton House Collection] [Illustration: STUDY FOR "ANDROMEDA." 1890 Leighton House Collection] [Illustration: FROM SKETCH IN CLAY FOR PERSEUS, IN THE PICTURE "PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA." 1891] [Illustration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN PANEL IN ROYAL EXCHANGE--"PHOENICIANS BARTERING WITH BRITONS" Leighton House Collection] [Illustration: "CYMON AND IPHIGENIA." 1884 The Corporation of Leeds] [Illustration: STUDY IN COLOUR FOR "CYMON AND IPHIGENIA." 1884 By permission of Mrs. Stewart Hodgson] [Illustration: STUDY FOR SLEEPING GROUP FOR "CYMON AND IPHIGENIA" Given by Lord Leighton to G.F. Watts, O.M., and given by the latter to the Collection in Leighton House, 1883] As the exquisite fragments in pencil of cyclamen, bramble and vine branch,[68] explain most intimately Leighton's genius as a draughtsman, so this head of Neruccia appears to me, together with one other work, to explain most explicitly his genius as a painter--a modeller with the brush. In 1890 Leighton painted "The Bath of Psyche."[69] The modelling in the torso of this figure, and in the head of Neruccia, reach the zenith as exemplifying Leighton's individuality as a painter. They might truly earn for him the title--Praxiteles of the brush.