Graphite and watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Rossetti and his Friends
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-max-beerbohm-722" aria-label="More by Sir Max Beerbohm" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Max Beerbohm</a>
Man Hymettus Mr Frederick Leighton
Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941
actions: postures and motions
adults
artist, painter
arts and entertainment
cane / walking stick
caricature
clothing and personal items
couch
furnishings
hat
individuals: male
Leighton, Frederic, Lord
man
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
social comment
society
standing
table
work and occupations
paper unique graphite watercolour
The Man from Hymettus. Mr Frederick Leighton
support: 438 × 318 mm
Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941
<p><b>A01057</b>	[from] ROSSETTI AND HIS FRIENDS (TWENTY-THREE DRAWINGS) 1916–17 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beerbohm-d-g-rossetti-precociously-manifesting-that-queer-indifference-to-politics-a01038" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A01038</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beerbohm-the-name-of-dante-gabriel-rossetti-is-heard-for-the-first-time-in-the-western-a01060" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A01060</span></a>; complete]
<br/> 
<br/>Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Mrs Charles Hunter; from whom purchased by the Leicester Galleries; from whom purchased by Sir Hugh Walpole 1921.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Lynch, 1921, pp.146–50.</p>
<p>A series of twenty-three <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a>, variously dated 1916 and 1917. Fifteen were lent by Mrs Charles Hunter to the <i>Modern Loan Exhibition</i>, Grosvenor Gallery, November 1917 (98); the complete series was first exhibited at the Leicester Galleries, September 1921 (1), in the order in which they are given here, again as <i>Rossetti and his Friends</i>. They were published in book form by Heinemann in 1922 as <i>Rossetti and His Circle</i>, possibly an allusion to Rossetti's <i>Dante and His Circle</i>, the second edition of his translations from the early Italian poets, published in 1874. The complete series of drawings was further exhibited in <i><a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>Paintings</span></a> and Drawings of the 1860 Period</i>, Tate Gallery, April–July 1923 (336), and was on loan to the Tate Gallery from June 1938. For further details, see below (artists represented in the collection will be fully discussed in the appropriate section of the catalogue).</p>
<p>(xx) Inscr. ‘<i>A Man from Hymettus. Mr. Frederick Leighton:</i>
“Think not for a moment, my dear Mr. Rossetti, that I am insensible to the charm of a life secluded, as yours is, from the dust of the arena, from the mire of the market-place. Ah no - I envy you your ivory tower. How often at some council meeting of the R.A. have I echoed within me that phrase of Wordsworth's, ‘the world is too much with us’. But alas, in all of us there is a duality of nature. You, <i>O felix nimium</i>, are singer as well as painter. I, separated from my easel, am but a citizen. And the civistic passion - yes, passion, dear Mr. Rossetti-restrains the impulse of the artist in me towards solitude and curbs the panting of the hart in me for the water-brooks. I feel that I have, in conjunction with my colleagues, a duty to the nation. To me the taste of the Sovereign, the taste of her ever-genial first-born and his sweet and gracious consort, of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and of the faithful Commons, of the Judicial Bench, of those who direct the Army and Navy and the Reserve forces, of our merchant princes in Threadneedle Street and of our Squires in the Shires, and through all these to bring light and improvement to those toiling millions on whom ultimately the glory of Great Britain rests - all this is in me an ambition not be be stifled and an aspiration not to be foregone. You smile, Mr. Rossetti, yet I am not disemboldened to say now, as I have often wished to say to you, in the words of the Apostle Paul, ‘Come over and help us’. Our President - I grant you in confidence - is not of all men the most enlightened; but I, in virtue of what is left to me of youth and ardour, conjoined with the paltry gift of tact, have some little influence in Burlington House. Come now! - let me put your name down in our Candidates' Book.”’ below and ‘Max 1916’ b.l.
<br/>Pencil and watercolour, 17 1/4×12 1/2 (44×32).
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Grosvenor Gallery, November 1917 (98, 12); Leicester Galleries, September 1921 (20); Tate Gallery, April–July 1923 (336, 20); on loan to the Tate Gallery from June 1938.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Lynch, 1921, p.148.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Rossetti and His Circle</i>, 1922, pl.19 (in colour).</p>
<p>The President of the Royal <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a> referred to is Sir Francis Grant, whom Leighton succeeded in 1878.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults artist, painter arts and entertainment cane / walking stick caricature clothing and personal items couch furnishings hat individuals: male Leighton, Frederic, Lord man named individuals objects people portraits social comment society standing table work and occupations