GE to Frederic Leighton, London, [25? November 1862]
Title
GE to Frederic Leighton, London, [25? November 1862]
Title
GE to Frederic Leighton, London, [25? November 1862]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Frederic Leigh
Date(s)
- 1862-11-25
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Frederic Leighton, London, [25? November 1862]
Text: Mrs. Russell Barrington, The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton, 2 vols., George Allen and Unwin, 1906, II, 98-99.
Blandford Square, N.W.
Tuesday Evening.
Dear Mr. Leighton,
I am enchanted! purely delighted! which shall I begin with, to tell you that I delight in Baby's toes or that exquisite poetry in the scene where Romola is standing? 113 Is it not a pleasant change to have that opening made through the walls of the city, so as to see the sky and the mountains? In the scene with Baldassarre and Tessa, also, the distant view is charming. Tessa and her Babkin are perfect -- Baldassarre's is, as you say, an impossible face to draw, but you have seized the framework of the face well, both in this illustration and the previous one.
I want to tell you that a man of some eminence in art was speaking of your drawings to a third person the other day as "remarkable" in a tone of genuine admiration. I don't know whether you care about that, but it is good to know that there is any genuine admiration in one's neighbours.
I am glad to have the drawings left. I shall go now and have a long look at them. The February number will soon be out of my hands, 114 but you will have it when it pleases the pigs -- or printers.
Ever yours truly,
M. E. Lewes.
Text: Mrs. Russell Barrington, The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton, 2 vols., George Allen and Unwin, 1906, II, 98-99.
Blandford Square, N.W.
Tuesday Evening.
Dear Mr. Leighton,
I am enchanted! purely delighted! which shall I begin with, to tell you that I delight in Baby's toes or that exquisite poetry in the scene where Romola is standing? 113 Is it not a pleasant change to have that opening made through the walls of the city, so as to see the sky and the mountains? In the scene with Baldassarre and Tessa, also, the distant view is charming. Tessa and her Babkin are perfect -- Baldassarre's is, as you say, an impossible face to draw, but you have seized the framework of the face well, both in this illustration and the previous one.
I want to tell you that a man of some eminence in art was speaking of your drawings to a third person the other day as "remarkable" in a tone of genuine admiration. I don't know whether you care about that, but it is good to know that there is any genuine admiration in one's neighbours.
I am glad to have the drawings left. I shall go now and have a long look at them. The February number will soon be out of my hands, 114 but you will have it when it pleases the pigs -- or printers.
Ever yours truly,
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Frederic Leighton, London, [25? November 1862], Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/92428