Watts (1817-1904)

Watts (1817-1904)

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Watts (1817-1904), by William Loftus
Hare
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Title: Watts (1817-1904)
Author: William Loftus Hare
Release Date: September 17, 2004 [eBook #13477]
Language: English
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(1817-1904)***
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WATTS (1817-1904)
by
W. LOFTUS HARE
Illustrated with Eight Reproductions in Colour

[Illustration: PLATE I.--DEATH CROWNING INNOCENCE
(Frontispiece)
A little child lying in the lap of the winged figure of Death. Death, ever

to Watts a silent angel of pity, "takes charge of Innocence, placing it
beyond the reach of evil." It was first exhibited at the Winter Exhibition
of the New Gallery, 1896, and was given to the nation in 1897. It is
now at the Tate Gallery.]

MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR
EDITED BY T. LEMAN HARE
"MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR" SERIES
ARTIST. AUTHOR. VELAZQUEZ. S.L. BENSUSAN. REYNOLDS.
S.L. BENSUSAN. TURNER. C. LEWIS HIND. ROMNEY. C. LEWIS
HIND. GREUZE. ALYS EYRE MACKLIN. BOTTICELLI. HENRY
B. BINNS. ROSSETTI. LUCIEN PISSARRO. BELLINI. GEORGE
HAY. FRA ANGELICO. JAMES MASON. REMBRANDT. JOSEF
ISRAELS. LEIGHTON. A. LYS BALDRY. RAPHAEL. PAUL G.
KONODY. HOLMAN HUNT. MARY E. COLERIDGE. TITIAN. S.L.
BENSUSAN. MILLAIS. A. LYS BALDRY. CARLO DOLCI.
GEORGE HAY. GAINSBOROUGH. MAX ROTHSCHILD.
TINTORETTO. S.L. BENSUSAN. LUINI. JAMES MASON. FRANZ
HALS. EDGCUMBE STALEY. VAN DYCK. PERCY M. TURNER.
LEONARDO DA VINCI. M.W. BROCKWELL. RUBENS. S.L.
BENSUSAN. WHISTLER. T. MARTIN WOOD. HOLBEIN. S.L.
BENSUSAN. BURNE-JONES. A. LYS BALDRY. VIGÉE LE BRUN.
C. HALDANE MACFALL. CHARDIN. PAUL G. KONODY.
FRAGONARD. C. HALDANE MACFALL. MEMLINC. W.H.J. &
J.C. WEALE. CONSTABLE. C. LEWIS HIND. RAEBURN. JAMES
L. CAW. JOHN S. SARGENT. T. MARTIN WOOD. LAWRENCE.
S.L. BENSUSAN. DÜRER. H.E.A. FURST. MILLET. PERCY M.
TURNER. WATTEAU. C. LEWIS HIND. HOGARTH. C. LEWIS
HIND. MURILLO. S.L. BENSUSAN. WATTS. W. LOFTUS HARE.
INGRES. A.J. FINBERG.
Others in Preparation.
The Publishers have to acknowledge the permission of Mrs. Watts to
reproduce the series of paintings here included.

[Illustration: IN SEMPITERNUM.]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate
I. Death crowning Innocence Frontispiece At the Tate Gallery
II. The Minotaur At the Tate Gallery
III. Hope At the Tate Gallery
IV. Thomas Carlyle At the South Kensington Museum
V. Love and Life At the Tate Gallery
VI. Love Triumphant At the Tate Gallery
VII. The Good Samaritan At the Manchester Art Gallery
VIII. Prayer At the Manchester Art Gallery
[Illustration]

I
A BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE
In July of 1904 the eighty-seven mortal years of George Frederick
Watts came to an end. He had outlived all the contemporaries and
acquaintances of his youth; few, even among the now living, knew him
in his middle age; while to those of the present generation, who knew
little of the man though much of his work, he appeared as members of
the Ionides family, thus inaugurating the series of private and public
portraits for which he became so famous. The Watts of our day,
however, the teacher first and the painter afterwards, had not yet come
on the scene. His first aspiration towards monumental painting began in
the year 1843, when in a competition for the decoration of the Houses
of Parliament he gained a prize of £300 for his cartoon of "Caractacus
led Captive through the Streets of Rome." At this time, when history
was claiming pictorial art as her servant and expositor, young Watts
carried off the prize against the whole of his competitors. This
company included the well-known historical painter Haydon, who,
from a sense of the impossibility of battling against his financial
difficulties, and from the neglect, real or fancied, of the leading
politicians, destroyed himself by his own hand.
The £300 took the successful competitor to Italy, where for four years
he remained as a guest of Lord Holland. Glimpses of the Italy he gazed
upon and loved are preserved for us in a landscape of the hillside town
of Fiesole with blue sky and clouds, another of a castellated villa and
mountains near Florence, and a third of the "Carrara Mountains near

Pisa"; while of his portraiture of that day, "Lady Holland" and "Lady
Dorothy Nevill" are relics of the Italian visit.
[Illustration: PLATE II.--THE MINOTAUR
In this terrible figure, half man, half bull, gazing over the sea from the
battlement of a hill tower, we see the artist's representation of the greed
and lust associated with modern civilisations. The picture was