Watts (1817-1904) | Page 6

down to it; the four
treatises we have are interesting, though dry as dust; but if Dante had
finished his Banquet, he might never have had time for his "Divine
Comedy"; so perhaps, after all, we shall be well content to be without
Watts' "Cosmos," remembering what we have gained thereby. Besides,

the continuous and spontaneous self-revelation of an artist or a poet is
sometimes truer than a rigid predetermined plan.
[Illustration: PLATE IV.--THOMAS CARLYLE
(At the South Kensington Museum)
This canvas was painted in 1868, and is the earlier of the two portraits
of the famous historian painted by Watts. It formed part of the Foster
Bequest. It is interesting to compare this with the painting in the
National Portrait Gallery.]
A few words from the pen of the artist, appearing by way of preface to
a book, "A Plain Handicraft," may here be quoted to indicate the strong
views Watts took on the "Condition-of-England Question." His interest
in art was not centred in painting, or sculpture, or himself, or his fellow
artists. He believed in the sacred mission of art as applied to profane
things. We see how closely he adheres to the point of view made so
famous by Ruskin. Both Watts and Ruskin, one feels, belong rather to
the days of Pericles, when everything was best in the state because the
citizens gave themselves up to it and to each other. Writing of the
necessity and utility of reviving Plain Handicrafts among the mass of
the people, the painter of "Mammon" says:
"... When the object is to vitalise and develop faculties--the especial
inheritance of the human race, but strangely dormant in our time among
the largest section of the community--the claim becomes one that
cannot be ignored. Looking at the subject from a point of view
commanding a wide horizon, it seems to be nothing less than a social
demand, rising into a religious duty, to make every endeavour in the
direction of supplying all possible compensating consolation for the
routine of daily work, become so mechanical and dreary. When home is
without charm, and country without attaching bonds, the existence of a
nation is rudely shaken; dull discontent leading to sullen discontent,
may readily become active animosity. There will not be men interested
in the maintenance of law and order, who feel that law and order bring
them no perceptible formal advantage. In the race for wealth, it has
been forgotten that wealth alone can offer neither dignity nor
permanent safety; no dignity, if the man of the population is degraded
by dull toil and disgraceful competition; no safety, if large numbers
drag on a discontented existence, while the more active and intelligent
leave our shores.

"Whether or not our material wealth is to be increased or diminished, it
is certain that a more general well-being and contentment must be
striven for. A happy nation will be a wealthy nation, wealthy in the best
sense, in the assurance that its children can be depended upon in case of
need, wealth above the fortune of war, and safety above the reach of
fortune. The rush of interest in the direction of what are understood as
worldly advantages, has trampled out the sense of pleasure in the
beautiful, and the need of its presence as an element essential to the
satisfaction of daily life, which must have been unconsciously felt in
ages less absorbed in acquiring wealth for itself alone. In olden times
our art congresses would have been as needless as congresses to
impress on the general mind the advantages of money-making would
be in these." (Plain Handicraft, 1892.)
In G.F. Watts, however, we have an instance of a man who, although
he sees and is attracted by abstract principles of ethics, does not
perceive the manner of their final application; he is not really scientific.
It might be thought that the painter of "Greed and Toil," "The
Sempstress," "Mammon," "The Dweller of the Innermost," and "Love
Triumphant," would be able to indicate, in that sphere of social activity
called "practical politics," how these principles could find their
expression and realisation. It is interesting, however, to know, and to
have it authoritatively from his own pen, that Watts at least could not
discern either the time or the application of these ethical principles to
the affairs of the great world; for in 1901 there appeared from his hand
a quasi-philosophical defence of the South African War, entitled "Our
Race as Pioneers." He said:
"Inevitable social and political measures claim obedience, which may
be at variance with the spiritual and ethical conscience; but there comes
in the question of necessity, apparent laws that contest with pure right
and wrong; ... and as we must live, nothing remains but commerce; and
commerce cannot be carried on without competition, and