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WATTS, GEORGE FREDERICK (1817-1904)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 422 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WATTS, See also:GEORGE See also:FREDERICK (1817-1904) , See also:English painter and sculptor, was See also:born in See also:London on the 23rd of See also:February 1817. While hardly more than a boy he was permitted to enter the See also:schools of the Royal See also:Academy; but his attendance was See also:short-lived, and his further See also:art See also:education was confined to See also:personal experiment and endeavour, guided and corrected by a See also:constant See also:appeal to the See also:standard of See also:ancient See also:Greek See also:sculpture. There are portraits of himself, painted in 1834; of Mr See also:James Weale, about 1835; of his See also:father, " Little See also:Miss See also:Hopkins," and Mr See also:Richard See also:Jarvis, painted in 1836; and in 1837 he was already far enough advanced to be an exhibitor at the Academy with a picture of " The Wounded See also:Heron " and two portraits. His first exhibited figure-subject, " Cavaliers," appeared on the Academy walls in 1839, and was followed in 1840 by " See also:Isabella e Lorenzo," in 1841 by " How should I your true love know? " and in 1842 by a See also:scene from Cymbeline and a portrait of Mrs Ionides. The Royal See also:Commission appointed for the decoration of the new Houses of See also:Parliament offered prizes in 1842 to those artists whose cartoons for frescoes should be adjudged best adapted to its See also:object, and at the See also:exhibition in See also:Westminster See also:Hall next See also:year Watts secured a See also:prize of £300 for a See also:design of " See also:Caractacus ledin See also:triumph through the streets of See also:Rome." This enabled him to visit See also:Italy in 1844, and he remained there during the greater portion of the three following years, for the most See also:part in See also:Florence, where he enjoyed the patronage and personal friendship of See also:Lord See also:Holland, the See also:British See also:ambassador. For him he painted a portrait of See also:Lady Holland, exhibited in 1848, and in his See also:Villa Careggi, near the See also:city, a See also:fresco, after making some experimental studies in that See also:medium, fragments of which are now in the See also:Victoria and See also:Albert Museum. To Lord Holland's encouragement, also, it was chiefly due that in 1846 the artist took part in another competition, the third organized by the Royal Commissioners, who on this occasion announced a further See also:list of prizes for See also:works in oil. Watts sent in a See also:cartoon depicting " See also:Alfred inciting his subjects to prevent the landing of the Danes, or the first See also:naval victory of the English," which, after obtaining a first-class prize of £500 at the exhibition in Westminster Hall, was See also:purchased by the See also:government, and hangs in one of the See also:committee rooms of the See also:House of See also:Commons. It led, moreover, to a commission for the fresco of " St George overcomes the See also:Dragon," which, begun. in 1848 and finished in 1853, forms part of the decorations of the Hall of the Poets in the Houses of Parliament. He next proposed to adorn gratuitously the interior of the See also:Great Hall of Euston railway station with a See also:series of frescoes illustrating " The Progress of the Cosmos," but the offer was refused. A similar proposition made shortly afterwards to the Benchers of See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn was received in a less commercial spirit, and was followed by the See also:execution of the fresco, " See also:Justice: a See also:Hemicycle of Lawgivers," on the See also:north See also:side of their hall.

While this large undertaking was still in progress, Watts was working steadily at pictures and portraits. In 1849 the first two of the great allegorical compositions which See also:

form the most characteristic of the artist's productions were exhibited—" See also:Life's Illusions," an elaborate presentment of the vanity of human desires, and " The See also:people that sat in darkness," turning eagerly towards the growing See also:dawn. In 1850 he first gave public expression to his intense longing to improve the See also:condition of humanity in the picture of " The See also:Good Samaritan " bending over the wounded traveller; this, as recorded in the See also:catalogue of the Royal Academy, was " painted as an expression of the artist's admiration and respect for the See also:noble philanthropy of See also:Thomas See also:Wright, of See also:Manchester," and to that city he presented the See also:work. In 1856 Watts paid a visit to Lord Holland at See also:Paris, where he was then ambassador, and through him made the acquaintance and painted the portraits of See also:Thiers, See also:Prince See also:Jerome See also:Bonaparte and other famous Frenchmen; while other celebrities who sat to him during these years were See also:Guizot (1848), See also:Colonel See also:Rawlinson, C.B., See also:Sir See also:Henry See also:Taylor and Thomas Wright (1851), Lord See also:John See also:Russell (1852), See also:Tennyson (1856, and again in 1859)., John Lothrop See also:Motley the historian (1859), the See also:duke of See also:Argyll (186o), Lord See also:Lawrence and Lord See also:Lyndhurst (1862), Lord See also:Wensleydale (1864), Mr See also:Gladstone (1858 and 1865), Sir See also:William Bowman and See also:Swinburne (1865), See also:Panizzi (1866) and See also:Dean See also:Stanley and Dr See also:Joachim in 1867. Notable pictures of the same See also:period are " Sir Galahad " (1862), " See also:Ariadne in See also:Naxos " (1863), " See also:Time and Oblivion " (1864), originally designed for sculpture to be carried out " in See also:divers materials after the manner of See also:Pheidias," and " See also:Thetis " (1866). In spite of these and many other evidences of his importance, it was not until 1867 that Watts was elected an See also:Associate of the Royal Academy, but the See also:council then conferred upon him the rare distinction of promoting him, in the course of the same year, to full Academicianship. Thenceforward he continued to exhibit each year, with a few exceptions, at the Academy, even after his retirement in 1896, and he was also a frequent contributor to the Grosvenor See also:Gallery, and subsequently to the New Gallery, at which last a See also:special exhibition of his works was held in the See also:winter of 1896-1897. Though he travelled abroad to some extent, going to See also:Asia See also:Minor in 1857 with the expedition sent to investigate the ruins of See also:Halicarnassus, and visiting in later years Italy, See also:Greece and See also:Egypt, the greater part of his life was passed in the laborious seclusion of his studio either at Little Holland House, Melbury Road, See also:Kensington, where he settled in 1859, or in the See also:country at Limnerslease, See also:Compton, See also:Surrey. Apart from his art, I would sooner point out the true way to those who seek it than his life was happily uneventful, the See also:sole facts necessary to See also:record being his See also:marriage in 1886 with Miss See also:Mary See also:Fraser-See also:Tytler, an See also:early See also:union with Miss Ellen See also:Terry having been dissolved many years before; his twice receiving (1885 and 1894), but respectfully declining, the offer of a baronetcy; and his inclusion in See also:June 1902 in the newly founded See also:Order of Merit. He died on the 1st of See also:July 1904. The See also:world is exceptionally well provided with opportunities of judging of the qualities of G. F.

Watts's art, for with a noble generosity he presented to his country a representative selection of the best work of his See also:

long life. A prominent See also:element in it, and ore which must prove of the greatest value to posterity, is the inestimable series of portraits of his distinguished contemporaries, a series no less remarkable for its See also:artistic than for its See also:historical See also:interest. A glance through the list of his subjects shows the breadth of his sympathies and his superiority to creed or party. Among politicians are the duke of See also:Devonshire (1883), Lords See also:Salisbury (1884), See also:Sherbrooke (1882), See also:Campbell (1882), See also:Cowper (1877), See also:Ripon (1896), Dufferin (1897) and See also:Shaftesbury (1882), Mr Gerald See also:Balfour (1899) and Mr John See also:Burns (1897); poets—Tennyson, Swinburne (1884), See also:Browning (1875), See also:Matthew See also:Arnold (1881) See also:Rossetti (1865, and subsequent replica) and William See also:Morris (187o) ; artists--himself (1864, 1880, and eleven others), Lord See also:Leighton (1871 and 1881), See also:Calderon (1872), See also:Prinsep (1872), Burne-See also:Jones (187o), See also:Millais (1871), See also:Walter See also:Crane (1891), and Alfred See also:Gilbert (1896); literature is represented by John See also:Stuart See also:Mill (exhibited 1874), See also:Carlyle (1869), George See also:Meredith (1893), Max See also:Muller (1895) and Mr See also:Lecky (1878); See also:music, by Sir See also:Charles See also:Halle; while among others who have won fame in diverse paths are Lords See also:Napier (1886) and See also:Roberts (1899), See also:General See also:Baden-See also:Powell (1902), See also:Garibaldi, Sir Richard See also:Burton (1882), See also:Cardinal See also:Manning (1882), Dr See also:Martineau (1874), Sir See also:Andrew See also:Clark (1894), George See also:Pea-See also:body, Mr Passmore See also:Edwards, See also:Claude See also:Montefiore (1894). Even more significant from an artistic point of view is the great collection of symbolical pictures in the See also:Tate Gallery which forms the artist's See also:message to mankind. Believing devoutly in the high See also:mission of didactic art, he strove ever to carry out his part of it faithfully. To quote his own words: " My intention has not been so much to paint pictures that See also:charm the See also:eye, as to suggest great thoughts that will appeal to the See also:imagination and the See also:heart, and kindle all that is best and noblest in humanity "; and his tenet is that the See also:main object of the painter should be " demanding noble aspirations, condemning in the most trenchant manner prevalent vices, and warning in deep tones against lapses from morals and duties." There are not wanting critics who radically dissent from this view of the proper functions of art. It must be admitted that there is force in their objection when the inner meaning of a picture is found to be exceedingly obscure, if not incomprehensible, without a verbal explanation. In the See also:female figure, for instance, bending blindfolded on the globe suspended in space and See also:sounding the sole remaining See also:string upon her See also:lyre, while a single See also:star shines in the See also:blue heavens, it is not obvious to every one that the See also:idea of " See also:Hope " (1885) is suggested. There can be few, nevertheless, who will maintain that his aim is not a lofty one; and the strongest See also:evidence of the artist's greatness, to those who accept his See also:doctrine, is the fact that he has not only striven untiringly for his own ideals, but has very often gloriously attained them. Moreover, in so doing he has not failed on occasion to impart to his work much of that very charm which is to him a secondary See also:consideration, or to exhibit an assured and accomplished mastery of the technical achievement which is to some the See also:primary object and essential triumph of See also:painting. It was, in short, the rare See also:combination of supreme handicraft with a great Imaginative See also:intellect which secured to Watts his undisputed See also:place in the public estimation of his See also:day.

The grandeur and dignity of his See also:

style, the ease and purposefulness of his brushwork, the richness and harmoniousness of his colouring—qualities partly his own, partly derived from his study of See also:Italian masters at an early and impression-able See also:age—are acknowledged even by those to whom his elevated educational intentions are a See also:matter of indifference, if not of See also:absolute disapprobation; while many, to whom his exceptional artistic attainment is a sealed See also:book, have gathered courage or See also:consolation from the See also:grave moral purpose and deep human sympathy of his teaching. He expresses his ideas for the most part in terms of beauty, an idealized, classical beauty of form, a glowing, Venetian beauty of See also:colour, though his conviction of the deadly danger of heaped-up riches, which he vindicated in his life as well as in his work, has, in such cases as " The See also:Minotaur " (exhibited in 1896), " See also:Mammon " (1885) and " See also:Jonah " (1895), where the unveiled vileness of See also:Cruelty and Greed is fearlessly depicted, driven him to the presentment of sheer ugliness or brutality. Far oftener a vast, all-embracing tenderness inspires his work; it is the sorrow, not the See also:sin, that stirs him. When he would rebuke the thoughtless inhumanity which sacrifices its See also:annual hecatombs of See also:innocent birds to fashionable vanity and grasping See also:commerce, it is not upon the See also:blood and cruelty that he dwells, but the pity of it that See also:lie typifies in " See also:Dedication " or " The Shuddering See also:Angel " (1892) weeping over the See also:altar spread with Woman's spoils. Yet it is as a teacher that the artist is seen at his highest: headmonish those who have wandered. He never wearies of emphasizing the reality of the See also:power of Love, the See also:fallacy underlying the fear of See also:Death. To the early masters Death was a See also:bare and ghastly See also:skeleton, above all things to be shunned; to Watts it is a See also:grand, impressive figure, awful indeed but not horrible, irresistible but not ruthless, a bringer of See also:rest and See also:peace, not to be rashly sought but to be welcomed when the inevitable See also:hour shall strike. "Sic transit" (1892) conveys most completely, perhaps,Watts's See also:lesson on the theme of death. Stretched on a bier and reverently sheeted lies a See also:corpse; strewn neglected on the ground lie the See also:ermine robe of worldly See also:rank, the weapons of the See also:warrior, the See also:lute of the musician, the book of human learning, the See also:palmer's robe of See also:late repentance and the See also:roses of fleeting pleasures; the See also:laurel See also:crown remains as the one thing See also:worth the winning, and the inscription " What I spent I had; what I saved I lost; what I gave I have," points the moral. Such is the significance of the still more masterly ` See also:Court of Death" (finally completed 1902 and now in the Tate Gallery). To the same early masters Love was usually a See also:mere distributor of sensual pleasures, a tricksy spirit See also:instinct with malice and bringing more harm than happiness to humanity, though neither was of much moment. Watts has not altogether ignored this view, and in " See also:Mischief " (1878) has portrayed See also:Man, love-led, entangled among the thorns of the world; but, in the main, Love to him is the See also:chief See also:guide and helper of mankind along the barren, See also:rock-strewn path of life, through whom alone he can attain the higher levels, and who triumphs in the end over Death itself.

To these views on the all-importance of love a trilogy of pictures in the Tate Gallery gives full expression. In the first, " Love and Life," exhibited in 1885, a replica of an earlier picture in the See also:

Metropolitan Museum, New See also:York, and of another version presented by him to the Luxembourg, Paris, Love, a figure in the See also:prime of manhood, leads and supports the slender, clinging girl who symbolizes Life up to the craggy See also:mountain-See also:top, while he partly See also:shields her from the blast under a broad wing. Of this he himself said, " Probably ' Love and Life ' best portrays my message to the age. Life, re-presented by the female figure, never could have reached such heights unless protected and guided by Love ";1 and in the prefatory See also:note to the exhibition of his works in 1896 he wrote, " The slight female figure is an See also:emblem of the fragile quality in humanity, at once its weakness and its strength; sensibility, aided by Love, sympathy, tenderness, self-See also:sacrifice, and all that the range of the See also:term implies, humanity ascends the rugged path from brutality to spirituality." The limitations of earthly love are shown in the second " Love and Death," one version of which was exhibited in 1877 and others in 1896, &c. In this, Love, a beautiful boy, striving vainly to See also:bar the See also:door to the mighty figure of Death, is thrust back with crushed wings powerless to stay the advance; but that the defeat is merely apparent and temporary is suggested rather than asserted by the third Love Triumphant '' (1898), where Time, with broken See also:scythe, and Death lie prostrate, while the same youth, with widespread wings and See also:face and arms upraised to See also:heaven, stands between them on tiptoe as if preparing to soar aloft. Though the purely symbolical is the most distinctive side of Watts's art, it is by no means the only one. He has See also:drawn See also:inspiration largely from both the Old and New Testaments, more rarely from the poets and classical myths; still more rarely he has treated subjects of See also:modern life, though even in these he has not abandoned his moral purpose, but has sought out such incidents, whether fictitious or historical, as will serve him in conveying some lesson or See also:monition. The three pictures of the See also:story of See also:Eve in the Tate Gallery, " She shall be called woman " (1892), " Eve Tempted " and " Eve Repentant " (both exhibited in 1896), and " The Curse of See also:Cain " (1872) in the Diploma Gallery, may be cited as examples of the first; " For he had great possessions " (1894) of the second; " Sir Galahad " (1862), " See also:Orpheus and See also:Eurydice " and " See also:Psyche " (188o), of the third; and " The Irish See also:Famine" (about 1847) and " A Patient Life of Unrewarded Toil " (189o), of the last of these. Never has he treated See also:religion from a sectarian point of view. Watts is before all things a painter with a grave and See also:earnest purpose, painting because that form of expression was easier to him than See also:writing, though he has published some few articles and pampphlets, chiefly on art matters; but he, too, has his lighter side, and has daintily treated the humorously fanciful in " Good See also:luck to your fishing " (1889) ; " The See also:habit does not make the See also:monk " (1889), in which See also:Cupid, See also:half-hidden under the See also:frock, taps maliciously at a closed door; and " Trifles See also:Light as See also:Air " (exhibited 1901), a swarm of little amorini drifting in the summer air like a See also:cloud of gnats; while in " Experientia docet B.C." (1890), a primeval woman watching with admiration, not unmixed with anxiety, the man who has first swallowed an See also:oyster, he condescends, not very successfully, to the frankly comic. These must be regarded, however, as merely the relaxations of the serious mind that has See also:left its impress even on the relatively few, but very admirable, landscapes he produced, in which, as for instance " The See also:Carrara Mountains from See also:Pisa " (1881), a sober dignity of treatment is conspicuous. Watts's technique is as individual as his point of view.

It is chiefly remarkable for its straightforwardness and simplicity, and G. F. Watts, R.A., by Charles T. See also:

Bateman. its lack of any straining after purely technical effects. The idea to be expressed is of far higher importance to him than the manner of expressing it. The statement of it should be a matter of good, See also:sound workmanship, not of artistic agility or See also:manual dexterity. To say what he has to say as clearly and briefly as may be is his aim, and when he has achieved the effect he desires, the method of his doing so is of no further moment. In the use of paint as paint, in the See also:intrinsic beauties of See also:surface and handling, he would seem in his later years to take no delight. Thus in parts of the picture the rough, coarse See also:canvas he prefers may be so thinly covered that every fibre of the material can be seen, while in others a richly modelled impasto loads the surface. He employs, as far as possible, pure See also:colours laid on in See also:direct juxtaposition or broken into and across each other, not blended and commingled on the See also:palette. He eschews all elaboration of detail and, except in See also:portraiture, works rarely from the living See also:model, neglecting minor delicacies of form or passages of See also:local colour, conventionalizing to a standard of his own rather than idealizing—a See also:process not always unproductive of faults of See also:drawing and proportion, as in the figure of " Faith " (1896), or of singularities of tint, as in the curious leaden face and prismatic background in " The Dweller in the Innermost " (1886).

He avoids, as a See also:

rule, the use of definite outline, leaving the limits of his forms to melt imperceptibly into the background; nor does texture interest him greatly, and a See also:uniform fresco-like surface is See also:apt to represent flesh and foliage, distance and foreground alike. He intends deliberately that the things he depicts, be they what they may, shall be symbols, useful for their meaning alone, and he makes no See also:attempt at conferring on them an accurate actuality, which might distract the See also:attention from the See also:paramount idea. That this reticence is intentional may be learned from an examination of his earliest works, in which the accessories are rendered with a precise, if some-times a dry, truthfulness of observation; that it is not due to carelessness or indifference is shown by the inexhaustible See also:patience with which each picture has been executed. His earlier pictures are unsurpassed in the art of See also:England for See also:fine technical qualities of colour and delicacy of handling. Though working unceasingly, Watts never hurried the completion of any canvas. Of two slightly differing versions of " Fata Morgana," both begun in x847, the first was not finished before 187o, the second not until ten years later. Even after See also:finishing a picture sufficiently for exhibition, he often subsequently worked further upon it. The portrait of Lord Leighton, exhibited in 1881, was repainted in 1888; the version of " Love and Death," exhibited in 1877, and 1883, and all the pictures presented to the Tate Gallery in 1897, were more or less retouched when hung there. Furthermore, he painted more than one version of several of his favourite subjects, a circumstance which, combined with the fact that he rarely added the year to his See also:signature and kept no record of his annual See also:production, makes the task of precisely dating his pictures for the most part impossible, while it renders any attempt to dispose his works in periods untrustworthy and artificial, since even the growth and inevitable decay of artistic power are to a considerable extent obscured. Founded admittedly on the Grecian monuments, there is a sculpturesque rather than pictorial quality in most of his compositions, a regulated disposition which, though imparting often a certain air of unreality and detachment, inspires them nevertheless with that noble impressiveness which forms their most conspicuous characteristic. It is natural, therefore, that in sculpture itself he should also take a high place. A See also:taste for this he acquired as a boy; he was a constant visitor to the studio of Behnes, where he not infrequently made drawings from the casts, though he was never in any sense his See also:pupil.

Among his works in this See also:

branch of art are a bust of " Clytie " (1868), monuments to the See also:marquis of See also:Lothian, See also:Bishop See also:Lonsdale and Lord Tennyson, a large See also:bronze equestrian statue of " See also:Hugo See also:Lupus " at See also:Eaton Hall (1884), and a See also:colossal one of a man on horseback, emblematical of " See also:Physical See also:Energy," originally in-tended for a place on the See also:Embankment, but destined to stand among the Matoppo Hills as an enduring evidence of the artist's admiration for See also:Cecil See also:Rhodes; a replica has been placed in Kensington Gardens. It was the See also:practical See also:idealism of Rhodes that appealed to him, and in this quality Watts himself was by no means lacking. Much of his time and attention was given to the promotion of the See also:Home Arts and See also:Industries Association; he assisted Mrs Watts with both See also:money and See also:advice in the See also:founding of an art pottery at Compton, and in the See also:building at the same place of a highly decorated See also:mortuary See also:chapel, carried out almost entirely by local labour; and it was entirely due to his initiative that the erection in Postmen's See also:Park, Aldersgate See also:Street, London, of memorial tablets to the unsung heroes of everyday life was begun.

End of Article: WATTS, GEORGE FREDERICK (1817-1904)

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