Watts Gallery, Watts Cemetery Chapel, Limnerslease Compton Pottery, G.F. Watts and Mary Watts
Watts Gallery
Watts Gallery Watts Gallery was first opened to the public in 1904. It houses the permanent collection of George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904), including drawings, paintings, prints and sculptures. It was the first purpose-built art gallery to show a single professional artist’s collection. Designed by Christopher Hatton Turnor (1873–1940) the Gallery is a listed Arts & Crafts building. It was also constructed to house apprentice potters who worked in the Compton Pottery, founded by Mary Seton Watts, Watts’s second wife. The Watts’s home Limnerslease is located nearby.
Watts Cemetery Chapel This unique chapel was designed and built by Mary Seton Watts between 1894 and 1904. It fuses Art Nouveau, Celtic, Romanesque and Egyptian influence with Mary’s own original style and was designed to be a place of comfort and inspiration. The rich symbolic imagery of the River of Life and the Tree of Life reinforce a message of renewal and resurrection. Mary, together with her team of trained crafts-people and local villagers created the wealth of decoration, polychrome inside and outside in red terracotta. The Chapel is still in use today and is owned by Compton Parish Council
Watts Chapel
Limnerslease
Limnerslease Limnerslease was built for Watts and his wife in 1890-91. Their love for the area developed during frequent visits to friends living in Compton. Intended as a retreat from the pollution in London during the winter months, the Watts’s increasingly escaped here and their estate grew over the years. Ernest George designed the house in the Arts and Crafts style, with Mary decorating the ceilings and fireplaces. Many of their friends visited this centre of artistic creativity.
Compton Pottery
Compton Pottery The Compton pottery was established on the estate in 1899 and operated until 1956. Mary Watts began with weekly terracotta-modelling classes, training local villagers to make chapel decorations using the estate’s clay deposits. With the early support of the Home Arts and Industries Association this developed into The Potters’ Arts Guild in 1904. The pottery eventually employed up to seventeen men and produced large terracotta garden pots, assorted garden statuary and small coloured ornamental ware. The original pottery, kiln and pugmill still survive on the estate.
G.F. Watts
George Frederic Watts, OM, RA (1817-1904) George Frederic Watts was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the greatest artists of the Victorian age. A portraitist, sculptor, landscapist and symbolist he expressed important ideas of the time. Watts trained at the Royal Academy Schools, exhibiting his first painting in 1837. He was the first living artist to have a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He often travelled to Italy and was influenced by the great masters throughout his life. Watts intended his art to be beautiful, to have a strong social message and be accessible by the public.
Mary Seton Watts
Mary Seton Watts (1849-1938) Mary Seton Tytler became Watts’s second wife in 1886. Artistically educated she was interested in reviving traditional crafts and became involved in the Home and Arts Industries Association, teaching clay modelling to London factory workers. In 1891 the couple moved to Limnerslease in Compton, Surrey, where Mary became happier and more artistically prolific. Three years later she began designs for a cemetery chapel for Compton and involved Compton villagers in making terracotta exterior decorations. She wrote a book, “The Word in the Pattern” which explains the symbolist decoration. This unique chapel, Mary’s greatest achievement, was completed in 1904. The Compton Pottery continued operating as a local business until 1956.
Gallery Isabel Goldsmith Isabel Goldsmith Patino SculptureGallery Patino Gallery Gallery
Isabel Goldsmith Joh Patino Gallery Watts Gallery Teacher’s Guide Foyle Learning Studio
5
Isabel Goldsmith Patino Gallery Sculpture Gallery
Showcase Watts Gallery Plan Gallery
sExhibition Gallery
Gallery
Isabel Goldsmith John Weston Patino Gallery Georg Gallery
Study 6 Weston Room Gallery Isabel Goldsmith 3 Patino Gallery Weston 1 4 Gallery Richard 2 Jefferies Graham
Showcase 1. Livanos Gallery 2. Richard Jefferies Gallery Gallery Livanos 3. Weston Gallery Showcase Gallery Gallery 4. Graham Robertson Showcase Showcase LivanosLivanos Weston Gallery 5. Sculpture Gallery Exhibition Gallery Gallery onGallery Gallery Gallery 6. Isabel Goldsmith Patino Artist in Gallery Residence’s
Weston Weston Gallery Gallery Sculpture
Ge Stu Ro
Isabel Goldsmith Patino Gallery
Isabel Goldsmith Patino Gallery
John George Study Room
Weston Gallery
Richard Jefferies Gallery
Seminar Room
Graham Robertson Gallery
Richard
Livanos Livanos Graham Gallery Graham Jefferies Robertson Gallery Gallery Robertson Gallery UNISEXRichard TOILETS BY APPOINTMENT Richard y Livanos Gallery Robertson Gallery Showcase Gallery ExhibitionRichard Weston Jefferies Jefferies This has always been the main entrance the gallery and is decorated with the original Gallery ACCESS NO PUBLIC ACCESS GallerytoDISABLED Richard Gallery Gallery Jefferies Gallery crimson, hand-made, linen wallpaper producedGallery by the Tynecastle company in the Venetian The paintingsGallery show the variety in Watts’s work over sixty years. Jefferies ArtistDesign. in Livanos Residence’s Gallery Richard Jefferies Gallery Gallery Studio Richard Studio
Formerly called the Sunken Gallery it is now renamed after a former curator. This gallery Exhibition places G.F. Watts and Mary Seton Watts into the context of their friends, family and patrons. Jefferies TheGallery central glass case exhibits personal items, such as Watts’ brushes, palette and sketch Gallery books.
UNISEX TOILETS UNISEX TOILETS
n ISEX TOILETS nce’s
BY BYAP AP
UNISEX TOILETS
DISABLED ACCESS DISABLED ACCESS 1 2
BY APPOINTMENT
See Teachers Notes on:-
1. Miss Virginia Dalrymple, 1871-2 2. Constantine Ionides and his Wife,1842 3. Self Portrait in Middle Age,1879
NOPU P NO
3 DISABLED ACCESS NO PUBLIC ACCESS
ABLED ACCESS
BY
NO
Weston Gallery This is part of the original C-shaped gallery built in 1904 and originally, 105 paintings hung here. It now displays paintings from the artist’s transitional period in the 1840’s from a painter of grand history paintings to a painter of social realism.
BY APPOINTMENT UNISEX TOILETS BY APPOINTMENT See Teachers Notes on:1. Irish Famine, 1850 DISABLED NO ACCESS PUBLIC ACCESS 2. Found Drowned, 1848-50
1
2 NO PUBLIC ACCESS Showcase
Graham-Robertson Gallery Formerly the end of the original C-shaped, this now exhibits examples of Watts’s Hall of Fame. These patriotic portraits record the great of his day for posterity. Also in this gallery are Watts’s paintings for a grand House of Life scheme inspired by Michelangelo, but never completed. See Teachers Notes on:1. Eve Tempted, c.1868 2. Eve Repentant, 1868 3. Florence Nightingale, 1820-1910
1
2
4. The Dean’s Daughter, 1880 5. Sophia Dalrymple and Sara Prinsep, 1856
3
4
5
Isobel Goldsmith Patino Gallery This extension to the original gallery was added by Mary after Watts’s death in 1904. It displays his greatest masterpieces and the scope of a lifetime of work. See Teachers Notes on:1. After the Deluge, also known as the Forty First Day, 1885-1886 2. Self Portrait aged 17, 1834 3. Time, Death and Judgement, 1870’s-1896
1
2
3
Sculpture Gallery This gallery displays two full-scale models from which bronze casts were made. Watts only turned seriously to sculpture when he was older. The small sculpture cases have examples of sculptural objects from his studio, illustrating how an artist used sculpture.
See Teachers Notes on:1. Monument to Lord Tennyson, 1898 2. Physical Energy, 1870-1904
1
2
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Self-Portrait aged 17 1834, oil on canvas Key Facts Watts painted this self-portrait, aged 17, in 1834, so it belongs to the pre-Victorian era. Watts looks out at us, portraying himself as a Romantic artist with a loose fitting open collar, and long hair, indicating a Bohemian. A patch of blue sky opens up behind him, suggesting his future as a successful artist. Watts left the portrait unfinished as if it is a working study. Considering his youth he appears confident and at ease. Watts painted self-portraits throughout his career, to promote his self-image, practice technique and create the particular vision of himself that he wanted the public to see.
Discussion Points • Why does an artist paint himself? Is it self-advertisement? • How do you think that Watts managed to paint himself? • Do you think this is a true likeness or has the artist flattered himself? • What props or clues to his artistic profession could Watts have included? • Was this intended as a private or public image? • Why do you think it was left unfinished? Activities • Using a mirror or a photograph, make a life-size drawing of yourself. • Decorate the background of your self-portrait with symbols that mean something to you. • Think about how you would like to be portrayed in your self-portrait, consider your expression, type of clothing and props. Then take these to a photo-booth or use a digital camera or mobile phone and pose for your self-portrait, full-face and in profile. Find Out More: G.F. Watts, Self-Portrait, 1845, Private Collection G.F. Watts, Self-Portrait, 1879, Watts Gallery G.F. Watts, Self-Portrait, c.1879, National Portrait Gallery G.F. Watts, Portrait of the Painter, 1904, Watts Gallery
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Self-Portrait of G.F. Watts in Middle Age 1879, oil on canvas Key Facts Watts was sixty-two when he painted this full profile selfportrait, requested by the famous Uffizi Gallery in Italy. He wears a skull cap in tribute to the great Venetian artist Titian. Watts presented himself as the great modern master, serious, contemplative and spiritual with his eyes cast downward. He achieved this pose by painting from a photograph instead of the mirror. Watts loved Italy and its classical past using the title ‘Signor’ given him by his friend Sophia Dalrymple. Watts painted self-portraits throughout his career, to promote his self-image, practice technique and create the particular vision of himself that he wanted the public to see.
Discussion Points • Why is Watts painted in front of a heavily draped curtain? What effect is achieved? • Who else wears hats like this? • What effect does the pose have on our understanding of Watts? Activities • Decide what type of hat you would wear to have your portrait painted. What does your hat say about you? • Like Watts, experiment with unusual poses for a portrait involving costume and props to tell us more about the person and what they like. Find Out More: Titian, Self Portrait, 1566, Prado, Madrid G.F. Watts, Portrait of the Painter, 1904, Watts Gallery
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) The Dean’s Daughter 1880, oil on canvas Key Facts One of Watts’s best-known portraits, this half-length and full profile portrait is of Emilie Le Breton (1853-1929), know as Lillie Langtry, after her marriage to Edward Langtry in 1874. She is the daughter of the Dean of Jersey, hence the title of this painting. Lillie was a celebrity of her day and the first ‘professional beauty’, acquiring the name Lillie due to the whiteness of her skin and with reference to the native flower of her Channel-Island home. Lillie was a sensation in London and posed for many famous artists such as Millais and Burne-Jones. She was a trend-setter and her knotted bun hairstyle became known as the ‘Langtry knot’. Watts invited Lillie to sit for this portrait for his own collection when she was at the height of her fame. She is wearing outdoor clothing and her bonnet was festooned with an ostrich feather, which Watts removed as he didn’t believe that animals should be used for fashion.
Discussion Points • Discuss how Watts’s pose highlights Lillie’s beauty. • Lillie’s brother had recently died so she wears black outdoor clothes in mourning. Is this something that we still do? • Lillie’s hat originally had a bird’s feather decoration which Watts removed because he had great sympathy for bird life. Discuss the use of feathers and fur in fashion. Activities • Lillie’s real name was Emilie Le Breton but she was better known by her nickname. Like Lillie, choose a nickname that describes your looks and where you come from. • Lillie was so beautiful a poem was written about her. Write a poem about a person you admire. Find Out More: Lillie Langtry, Photograph, Watts Gallery Archive, The Rob Dickins Collection
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Florence Nightingale 1868, oil on canvas Key Facts This unfinished portrait of Florence Nightingale is one of only two images of women intended for Watts’s ‘Hall of Fame’, a series of portraits celebrating the deeds of great Victorian individuals. Florence, named after the Italian city where she was born, dedicated her life to nursing and women’s rights. She reformed the Army Medical Services at a time, when girls were given little education and not expected to work. In 1854 she was called by the Secretary of State at War to go to the Crimea with a party of nurses, where she became known as ‘Lady of the Lamp.’ Here she fell ill with ‘typhus’ which affected her for the rest of her life. Produced during a bout of this illness, the portrait conveys thoughtfulness, determination and deep social conscience.
Discussion Points • Why might this portrait have remained unfinished? • The work was begun in a grey/green undercolour. If he had finished the work do you think that Watts would have painted over the colour or was this tone intended? • Compare this portrait to Florence Nightingale’s photographs in the Watts collection. What differences are there? • Why was she called the Lady of the Lamp? Activities • Paint a portrait of someone and leave it unfinished. • Find out what conditions were like in the hospital where Florence first worked in the Crimea. • Research the changes Florence brought to nursing • Florence was so famous a song was written about her. Compose a song about somebody famous. Find Out More: Mayall, Florence Nightingale, Photograph, Watts Gallery
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Miss Virginia Dalrymple 1871 - 1872, oil on canvas Key Facts This is a full-length portrait of Miss Virginia Julian Dalrymple, also known as, Mrs Francis Champneys, seated wearing a green dress in a three-quarter profile. It was painted as a gift for her wedding. She is posed, gazing at us, in the gardens of her home, Little Holland House. As the daughter of his friend Sophia, Watts knew Virginia all her life and frequently painted her. Virginia’s fashionable taste is revealed in her ‘modern’ green velvet, walking dress, with ruched epaulettes on the shoulders and trimmed sleeves. Coral jewellery adds colour and contrast. The portrait is unusually painted in intense green and set in a wild, shadowed, dark part of the garden, Virginia’s youth contrasting with the old tree.
Discussion Points • Look for the green dress worn by Virginia Dalrymple on the model beside the painting. Is this dress made by hand or by machine? • What do you notice about the size of the dress? How did Virginia make her waist so small? • What season of year is the garden painted in? What idea is Watts suggesting about the passing of time? • What does Virginia hold in her hand? What does this represent? Activities • Dress in a colour that represents something important to you or has meaning and have your portrait drawn or photo taken. • Add a background to the portrait that has further significance for you. Find Out More: D.G. Rossetti, The Day Dream, 1880, V&A Museum
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Sophia Dalrymple and Sara Prinsep 1856, oil on canvas Key Facts This full-length double portrait is of the Pattle sisters, Sophia Dalyrmple and Sara Prinsep, who were brought up in France and India. In this portairt they are wearing aesthetic dress, worn corsets or crinolines, a style of dress that was unusual for the time, but was gaining popularity during the 1850s. Their boldly coloured robe-like dresses, hair in nets and exotic jewellery makes them different from their conventional English contemporaries. The sisters stand on the balcony of their house, Little Holland House, Kensington, where Watts also lived for many years. Sophia on the left wears a green dress, swathed in a bulky golden paisley shawl. Sara wears a red dress with a blue cape. Their classical pose, the style and scale of the work refers to Watts’ recent visit to Italy and his interest in fresco painting. Sophia gave him the name ‘Signor’ and Sara said of Watts, ‘He came to stay three days; he stayed thirty years.’
Discussion Points • How has Watts made it clear that they are sisters? • Why did Watts make this portrait full-length? Would the effect have been different in half-length? • What lifestyle is suggested by the sisters’ clothes? • Why does Watts place them on their balcony? Activities • Find a painting or photograph of a woman wearing conventional fashion for the time. Compare it with this painting to see the difference in the clothing. • With a friend, pose for a full-length double portrait drawing or photograph. Express your friendship using clothing, pose and props. Find Out More: G.F. Watts, Lady Dalrymple, 1853, Watts Gallery
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Found Drowned 1848 - 1850, oil on canvas Key Facts Watts painted this dramatic composition of an unknown drowned woman, her feet still in the water, lying on the bank of the River Thames. Its title is a legal term used in a coroner’s inquest. She clasps a chain and heart shaped locket suggesting a tragic suicide and its cause, while her plain clothes convey poverty. Set under Waterloo Bridge, well known for illegal suicides at this time, emotion is emphasised by the woman’s outstretched pose and her illuminated face. In the distance, is the vague outline of the heavy industrialised south bank, opposite Hungerford Bridge, expressing Watts’s revulsion at the resulting social dislocation and despair. A radical painting for its time, it belongs to a group of four Social Realist paintings.
Discussion Points • Did Watts sympathise with the woman’s circumstances? What suggests this? • What might Watts have felt about poverty and suffering in cities at this time? • What gives hope in the painting? • Do you think Watts witnessed this scene? How did he know about it? Activities • In Watts’ day, newspaper articles reported suicides. Choose your own newspaper headline and, like Watts, recreate the event in a drawing or painting. • The model in the painting plays out a role from real life. Have your own models do the same with your headline story. • Discuss some appropriate titles. Like Watts, give your work a title using legal vocabulary. Find Out More: G.F. Watts, Under a Dry Arch, 1848-50, Watts Gallery G.F. Watts, The Irish Famine, 1848-50 Watts Gallery G.F. Watts, The Seamstress, 1849-50, Watts Gallery
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Irish Famine 1850, oil on canvas Key Facts The painting shows a contemporary subject, a young Irish family evicted from their home during the 1840’s. The Irish Famine occurred when the potato crop failed several years in succession causing mass starvation, killing thousands of people. The couple huddles together for comfort amidst a desolate, barren landscape. The father looks out defiantly, fists clenched, showing his anger, while the figure to the right expresses despair. Watts only visited Ireland after the picture was painted, so used models for this painting. A radical painting for its time it belongs to a group of four Social Realist paintings, depicting his concern with increasing poverty, stimulated by reading newspaper and magazine reports at the time.
Discussion Points • How is our concentration focused on the suffering of the Irish family? Does the background help express this? • How are imagery, facial expression and pose used to express feelings? • How does Watts help us to understand that it was not just this family that were suffering, but many Irish people? Activities • Using newspaper coverage of a recent disaster, create a modern family group based on this Watts painting either using photography or drawing. • Work out what the people in Watts’ painting might be saying. Make speech bubbles for each figure, or work in groups of three or four and write a mini play to perform. Find Out More: G.F. Watts, Found Drowned, 1848-50 Watts Gallery G.F. Watts, Under a Dry Arch, 1848-50, Watts Gallery G.F. Watts, The Seamstress, 1849-50, Watts Gallery
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) After the Deluge, also known as The Forty First Day 1885 - 1886, oil on canvas Key Facts Watts’s vast empty landscape, dominated by a sunburst, is an experimental painting. It imaginatively represents the phenomena of the sun bursting through clouds that have hung over the earth for forty days in the biblical story of the Flood. The rain has stopped to reveal the earth covered by slowly receding water. In the story, only Noah and his family survive, but they are not seen here. The painting presents an image symbolising forgiveness, offering renewal and re-creation. Watts was one of the first artists to directly paint the sun and the effects of light as the main image of an artwork.
Discussion Points • How does this painting make you feel? • Did Watts paint something he had seen? • In the gallery look carefully at the painting. Can you see the weave of the canvas? Notice the thickness of the paint and how it has been applied to the surface of the canvas. • Has he exaggerated the image of the sun and if so, why? Activities • What image would you choose that describes a cataclysmic event in the 21st century? Produce an artwork which other artists or images influence you? • What information would you include on an exhibition label to help other people engage with this painting? • Find the painting called Chaos in the gallery and compare the two works. Find Out More: G.F. Watts, Chaos, 1873-5, Watts Gallery G.F. Watts, Progress, 1883-1904, Watts Gallery
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Constantine Ionides and his Wife 1840 - 1841, oil on canvas Key Facts An early, but important family group portrait of the textile merchant and art collector Alexander Constantine Ionides, who was of Greek birth but had recently obtained British citizenship. The portrait hung in his family home in Tulse Hill, a south London rural suburb, frequently visited by the young Watts. Ionides commissioned the portrait in celebration of his growing status in London’s Greek community and of his ethnic origins. The informal and relaxed composition reflects Watts’s friendship. The boys wear exotic native costumes and the painting gives a glimpse into British multiculturalism, during the early 1840’s. Watts loved ancient Greek art and this modern Greek family connected him with the classical past. He later became painter to the Anglo-Greek community.
Discussion Points • What elements in the painting create the happy relaxed mood? • How do we know that the family was very wealthy? • Ionides is dressed in a conventional suit. Why are his boys dressed in native costumes? • Can you see similar skies in the background of other paintings in the gallery? Activities • Make detailed drawings of the beautiful embroidery on the boys’ costumes. • Choose your own furniture for a group portrait. Dress the group in costume. Make a drawing or take a photograph. Find Out More: G.F. Watts, Dr Demetrius-Alexander Zambaco, 1861, Watts Gallery
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Eve Tempted Begun around 1868, oil on canvas Key Facts The Story of Adam and Eve was a favourite of Watts. In this painting Eve, the first woman created by God in the Biblical story, succumbs to the serpent’s temptation and eats forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. As a result, the first humans were cursed and expelled from The Garden of Eden. The sensual figure of Eve, surrounded by opulent beauty, bends to smell the tempting scents of the colourful fruits and flowers. To Watts the garden represented the seduction and corruption of the material world, in dangerous opposition to the spiritual. The painting formed part of a planned cycle, which in the 1890s became known as The House of Life, exploring Watts fascination with the creation and evolution of the spirit of mankind. This is one of two paintings of Eve in the gallery.
Discussion Points • What mood does Eve appear to be in? • How is Eve’s weakness expressed? • Is the painting a warning? If so, about what? • What type of animal appears at her feet? What might it represent? Activities • Watts uses a strong diagonal in the figure of Eve to suggest her excitement. Choose your own emotion and express this in a picture. • Watts depicts one of the animals in The Garden of Eden. What other animals could have lived there, real or imaginary? • In this painting Watts uses flowers to represent corruption. Research the hidden meanings of different flowers, for example the tulip or the lily. Find Out More: G.F. Watts, Eve Repentant, 1868, Watts Gallery G.F. Watts, Clytie, late 1860’s, Watts Gallery
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Eve Repentent 1868, oil on canvas Key Facts The Story of Adam and Eve was a favourite of Watts. In this painting Eve, the first woman created by God in the Biblical story, has succumbed to the serpent’s temptation to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, resulting in a curse and expulsion from The Garden of Eden. This bears heavily upon her and she leans against the tree, her face hidden and taking refuge in nature. The painting formed part of a planned cycle which in the 1890s became known as The House of Life, exploring Watts’ fascination with the creation and evolution of the spirit of mankind. This is one of two paintings of Eve in the gallery.
Discussion Points • Compare this painting with the other painting of Eve in the gallery, Eve Tempted. What differences do you notice in the gardens and why? • How does Watts express Eve’s sadness? • How does he suggest Eve’s shame? • What are the white flowers and what do they represent? • Hope is a favourite theme of Watts. How is it represented in this painting? Activities • Make a list of human emotions. Without using facial expressions, act out these emotions using the body alone. • For centuries flowers have been used to express emotion. Can you find out as many of these meanings as possible, for example the hidden meanings given to the sunflower and to the rose. Find Out More: G.F. Watts, Eve Tempted, 1868, Watts Gallery G.F. Watts, Clytie, late 1860’s, Watts Gallery G.F. Watts, Hope, 1885-6, Watts Gallery
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Time, Death and Judgement 1870’s - 1896, oil on canvas Key Facts Watts painted this allegory, his most important and best known work, whilst pondering the big issues of life and death. Three versions of the painting exist. Watts gave this one to St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1897 and it is now on loan to Watts Gallery. The colossal figures fill the composition. Time, unconventionally youthful, with blind eyes oblivious to his surroundings and Death, beautifully passive, move towards us holding hands as if walking through life. Behind Time, the orange sun hangs to the right of Death, the cool moon. Judgement, in flaming robes of red, flies over them. Watts took many years to paint this work, initially only including Time and Death, and adding the third figure much later. Using coarse canvas, the surface was touched with white to create effects. Watts believed the imposing timelessness of this work made it suitable to decorate the nave of St. Paul’s, giving comfort to those experienced in loss and the homeless coming to the Cathedral for warmth and refuge.
Discussion Points • Why is Time portrayed as a youth? • Discuss how the sun connects with Time? What does Time hold in his hand? • Discuss how the moon connects with Death. What does she carry in her skirt? • Why does Watts paint Time and Death using contrasting tones? • Judgement carries a pair of scales and a sword. What do these represent? • What makes the painting so suitable to hang in a huge church like St. Paul’s? Activities • Like Watts, use a group of figures holding symbolic objects to represent an idea. • Watts’ colossal figures are like sculptures. Have models dress in costumes and stand still like statues. Take a picture or draw your models. Find Out More: G.F. Watts, Peace and Goodwill, 1887, Watts Gallery G.F. Watts, Love and Death, c.1885-7, Tate Gallery
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Progress 1888 - 1904, oil on canvas Key Facts Watts’s symbol of progress is a young man drawing his bow, whilst riding a white charger through a sunburst. He chose a sport practiced in ancient times that aimed at physical and mental perfection. Below the rider and horse, three figures symbolise non-progress: a scholar reading by the light of a tiny candle, a rich man groveling for money, and a lazy man. The dynamic image of a horse and rider was a favourite of Watts.
Discussion Points • Do you think this is a good choice of image to symbolise progress? • Why do the three figures below symbolise non-progress? • What other things are grouped in threes? What meanings do they have? • What does the painting tell us about Watts’s ideas about money and material wealth? • What words best describe the use of paint and colours? • Watts’ symbols were personal to him and his beliefs. Discuss how symbols can reinforce cultural identity. Activities • Choose your own image and create a design that represents progress today. Make a collage using different objects, shapes, animals, textures, colours, patterns and motifs to convey specific meanings. It can be 2-D, 3-D, relief or even take the form of time-based media such as film. • Symbols are used to communicate a message, idea or mood. For example, a halo in early Christian painting is easily understood. Find more symbols that represent different things through a library or the internet. Find Out More: G.F. Watts, Physical Energy, 1870’s-1904, Watts Gallery G.F. Watts, Mammon, 1885, Watts Gallery G.F. Watts, After the Deluge, 1885-91, Watts Gallery
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Monument to Lord Tennyson 1898 - 1903, gesso grosso model Key Facts This memorial statue of the great poet Alfred Lord Tennyson was begun by Watts when he was in his eighties, having already painted his lifelong friend six times. Born in Lincolnshire, Tennyson began writing poetry at the age of eight, later becoming Poet Laureate in 1850. When Tennyson died, Watts created this statue, the first of his colossal public works. It now stands outside Lincoln Cathedral. Without payment, he began with this model of gesso grosso, a mixture of plaster, glue size and chopped hemp, which could be modelled when it was soft and carved when hard. He worked in his special sculpture barn, close to Limnerslease but died before the bronze was completed in1905
Discussion Points • Why is Tennyson’s dog included? What was its name? • Originally Tennyson held something in his hand? What might this have been? Activities • The statue was inspired by a poem written by Tennyson. Find out which poem this was. • Draw a quick portrait, spending no more than 5 minutes on the sketch then, using clay or plasticine, create a 3-D portrait of someone using the clay. • Find a poem or write one that reminds you of someone that you like. • Look carefully to find evidence of the materials used to make the model. List all the different materials that can be used to make sculptures. Find Out More: Reduction by Thomas Wren after Watts, Tennyson, 1903, Bronze, Watts Gallery. Alfred Lord Tennyson, Photograph by Barraud, from the Rob Dickins Collection, Watts Gallery
George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) Physical Energy 1870’s - 1904, gesso grosso model Key Facts Once safely established as a subject painter and portraitist Watts turned seriously to sculpture in his fifties. He wanted to create large public works to be displayed in easy to visit places. This full-scale equestrian model symbolises energy, continual motion and ambition, suspended in time. He never trained in sculpture, but took inspiration from the British Museum Parthenon marbles by Pheidias. Watts used gesso grosso, a mixture of plaster, glue size and chopped hemp, which could be modelled when it was soft, and carved when hard. Three full-size bronze casts exist in London, Cape Town and Harare.
Discussion Points • Why is the figure raising his right hand and what is he looking at? • How tall is this model? • Does it represent a real person? Who was he? Why is he naked? • What is the horse doing? Activities • Find another painting or sculpture in the gallery where Watts uses a figure on horseback and sketch it. • In the gallery look for other models of figures, such as the models based on the Parthenon Frieze in the British Museum. • Look carefully to find evidence of the materials used to make the models. List all the different materials that can be used to make sculptures. • Find differently textured materials from around your school and record them by taking photographs of the different surfaces or making texture rubbings. Find Out More: The Parthenon marbles, British Museum, London Reduction by Thomas Wren, after G.F. Watts, Physical Energy (Richard Jefferies Gallery) Second bronze of Physical Energy, 1914, Kensington Gardens, London