GE to Frederic Leighton, Littlehampton, 10 September 1862
Title
GE to Frederic Leighton, Littlehampton, 10 September 1862
Title
GE to Frederic Leighton, Littlehampton, 10 September 1862
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Frederic Leigh
Date(s)
- 1862-09-10
Place
Littlehampton
Letter Content
GE to Frederic Leighton, Littlehampton, 10 September 1862
Text: Mrs. Russell Barrington, The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton, 2 vols., George Allen and Unwin, 1906, II, 99-100.
Park Hotel, Little Hampton, | Sussex,
September 10, '62.
Dear Mr. Leighton,
Thanks for your letter, which I have received this morning. My copy of Vasari has a profile of Piero di Cosimo, 102 but it is of no value, a man with a short beard and eyes nearly closed. The old felt hat on his head has more character in it than the features, but the hat you can't use.
Of Niccolo Caparra 103 it is not likely that any portrait exists, so that you may feel easy in letting your imagination interpret my suggestions in the First and the Fifth Parts of Romola. There is probably a portrait of Piero di Cosimo in the portrait room of Uffizi, but in the absence of any decent catalogue of that collection it was a bewildering and headachy business to assure oneself of the presence or absence of any particular personage.
If you feel any doubt about the new Romola, I think it will be better for you to keep to the original representation, the type given in the first illustration, which some accomplished people told me they thought very charming. It will be much better to continue what is intrinsically pretty than to fail in an effort after something indistinctly seen. If you prefer the action of taking out the crucifix, instead of the merely contemplative attitude, 104 you can choose that with safety. In the scene with Piero di Cosimo, I thought you might make the figures subordinate to those other details which you render so charmingly, and I chose it for that reason.
But I am quite convinced that illustrations can only form a sort of overture to the text. The artist who uses the pencil must otherwise be tormented to misery by the deficiencies or requirements of the one who uses the pen, and the writer, on the other hand, must die of impossible expectations. Apropos of all that, I want to assure you again of what I had said in that letter, which your naughty servant sent down the wind, that I appreciate very highly the advantage of having your hand and mind to work with me rather than those of any other artist of whom I know. Please do not take that as an impertinent expression of opinion, but rather as an honest expression of feeling by which you must interpret any apparent criticism.
The initial letter of the December part will be W. I forgot to tell you how pleased I was with the initial letter of Part V.
I am very much obliged to you for your critical doubts. I will put out the questionable "Ecco!" in deference to your knowledge. I have a tremulous sense of my liability to error in such things.
I don't wonder at your difficulty about the modification of com into ciom. The writers of the fifteenth century, speaking of the insurrection of the Ciompi 105 which occurred in the previous century, say that the word was a corruption of the French comp'e8re, the same word of course as compare, constantly on the lips of the numerous French who were present in Florence during the dictatorship of the Duke of Athens. The likelihood of the derivation lies in the analysis of transition in the meaning of words comp'e8re and compare, like the English "gossip," beginning with the meaning of godfather and ending with, or rather proceeding to that of companion. Our "gossip" has at least parted with its secondary meaning as well as its primary one.
The unlikelihood of the derivation lies in the modification of the sounds, and I felt that unlikelihood as you have done. But in the absence of a Max M'fcller to assure me of a law to the contrary, I thought the statement of Tuscan writers a better authority than inferences. I ought to have written "is stated by the old historians."
I am really comforted by the thought that you will mention doubts to me when they occur to you. My misery is the certainty that I must be often in error.
Mr. Lewes shares my admiration of the two last illustrations.
Ever yours truly,
Marian E. Lewes.
F. Leighton, Esq.
Text: Mrs. Russell Barrington, The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton, 2 vols., George Allen and Unwin, 1906, II, 99-100.
Park Hotel, Little Hampton, | Sussex,
September 10, '62.
Dear Mr. Leighton,
Thanks for your letter, which I have received this morning. My copy of Vasari has a profile of Piero di Cosimo, 102 but it is of no value, a man with a short beard and eyes nearly closed. The old felt hat on his head has more character in it than the features, but the hat you can't use.
Of Niccolo Caparra 103 it is not likely that any portrait exists, so that you may feel easy in letting your imagination interpret my suggestions in the First and the Fifth Parts of Romola. There is probably a portrait of Piero di Cosimo in the portrait room of Uffizi, but in the absence of any decent catalogue of that collection it was a bewildering and headachy business to assure oneself of the presence or absence of any particular personage.
If you feel any doubt about the new Romola, I think it will be better for you to keep to the original representation, the type given in the first illustration, which some accomplished people told me they thought very charming. It will be much better to continue what is intrinsically pretty than to fail in an effort after something indistinctly seen. If you prefer the action of taking out the crucifix, instead of the merely contemplative attitude, 104 you can choose that with safety. In the scene with Piero di Cosimo, I thought you might make the figures subordinate to those other details which you render so charmingly, and I chose it for that reason.
But I am quite convinced that illustrations can only form a sort of overture to the text. The artist who uses the pencil must otherwise be tormented to misery by the deficiencies or requirements of the one who uses the pen, and the writer, on the other hand, must die of impossible expectations. Apropos of all that, I want to assure you again of what I had said in that letter, which your naughty servant sent down the wind, that I appreciate very highly the advantage of having your hand and mind to work with me rather than those of any other artist of whom I know. Please do not take that as an impertinent expression of opinion, but rather as an honest expression of feeling by which you must interpret any apparent criticism.
The initial letter of the December part will be W. I forgot to tell you how pleased I was with the initial letter of Part V.
I am very much obliged to you for your critical doubts. I will put out the questionable "Ecco!" in deference to your knowledge. I have a tremulous sense of my liability to error in such things.
I don't wonder at your difficulty about the modification of com into ciom. The writers of the fifteenth century, speaking of the insurrection of the Ciompi 105 which occurred in the previous century, say that the word was a corruption of the French comp'e8re, the same word of course as compare, constantly on the lips of the numerous French who were present in Florence during the dictatorship of the Duke of Athens. The likelihood of the derivation lies in the analysis of transition in the meaning of words comp'e8re and compare, like the English "gossip," beginning with the meaning of godfather and ending with, or rather proceeding to that of companion. Our "gossip" has at least parted with its secondary meaning as well as its primary one.
The unlikelihood of the derivation lies in the modification of the sounds, and I felt that unlikelihood as you have done. But in the absence of a Max M'fcller to assure me of a law to the contrary, I thought the statement of Tuscan writers a better authority than inferences. I ought to have written "is stated by the old historians."
I am really comforted by the thought that you will mention doubts to me when they occur to you. My misery is the certainty that I must be often in error.
Mr. Lewes shares my admiration of the two last illustrations.
Ever yours truly,
Marian E. Lewes.
F. Leighton, Esq.
Signature
Marian E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Frederic Leighton, Littlehampton, 10 September 1862, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/92427