Two canvases by Leighton were hung at the Royal Academy in 1878, the year of his enthronement as President: Winding the Skein and Nausicaa.

[1][2] Edgcumbe Staley gives the following description of the first picture: Two Greek girls, light-complexioned, with fair hair, are engaged in a familiar occupation.

The colours are beautifully contrasted, and the natural position of the girl sitting with her bare feet crossed under her chair and holding the skein of wool is admirable—she is in white drapery.

Ernest Rhys writes in praise of this perceived quality in Leighton: In this we see two Greek maidens as naturally employed as we often see English girls in other surroundings.

He, like Sir L. Alma-Tadema and Albert Moore, contrived also to preserve a certain modern contemporary feeling in the classic presentment of his themes.