WATTS Magazine
Issue 11 Spring 2011 ÂŁ1
Perdita Hunt Announcing the Re-opening Mark Bills The Watts Lecture 2011 Claire Longworth Evelyn De Morgan Gregory Hedberg Alexander Creswell Emma Verey Falling in Love with Watts
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C U LT U R A L TO U RS & MUSIC HOLIDAYS f o r
d i s c e r n i n g
t r a v e l l e r s
A range of carefully crafted escorted itineraries for those with an interest in art, architecture, gardens, archaeology, history and music. Tours typically consist of between 12 and 22 participants. Join our small groups in the company of a tour lecturer or book one of our exclusive music festivals. Our destinations include Romania, Syria, Jordan,The Pilgrim’s Way from Burgos to Santiago de Compostela,The Palaces & Galleries of St.Petersburg and the Gardens & Villas of Rome. Music Holidays include visits to the Puccini Festival in Italy, Schubertiade in Austria and The Mahler Festival in Germany. Exclusive Kirker Music Festivals in Venice, Suffolk and Bolton Abbey and aboard Fred. Olsen’s Black Watch cruising to St Petersburg and The Baltic Capitals.
A SELECTION OF OUR CULTURAL TOURS FOR 2011 Uzbekistan - the land beyond The River
A Weekend in Istanbul
NO SINGLE SUPPLEMENT
Istanbul is one of the world’s most fascinating cities with a colourful and complex history spanning the centuries. Our 5 night holiday will introduce you to the history and monuments from both the Byzantine and Ottoman periods. There will be a comprehensive programme of sightseeing with one free afternoon to explore the wonderful Bazaar. Price from £1,262 for 5 nights at the 4* boutique hotel Celal Aga Konagi, including three dinners & one lunch Departs 20 April & 19 October 2011
Uzbekistan is still a land of great mystery, legends and romance. Travellers on the ancient Silk Route who reached the ‘Land beyond the River’ discovered the great cities of Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent waiting for them.These fabled cities are equally alluring to modern-day visitors and are all included in our journey of discovery. Price from £1,779 for 11 nights including all lunches & dinners. Departs 6 May & 30 September 2011
The Kirker Music Festival in Venice
NO SINGLE SUPPLEMENT
Join leading soprano Nelly Miricioiu, tenors Paul Nilon and Mark Tucker and respected baroque musician Paula Chateuneuf, chitarrone, for a celebration of baroque and bel-canto opera. Our exclusive music festival will be given in the 17th Century ballroom of the 4 star Hotel Monaco & Grand Canal close to St Mark’s Square. Price from £1,498 for 4 nights including two dinners, two guided walking tours of Venice and four concerts. Departs 17 November 2011
To make a booking or request a brochure please call us on
020 7593 2284 please quote source code GWT
www.kirkerholidays.com
MUSIC · ART HISTORY · GARDENS · ARCHITECTURE · ARCHAEOLOGY
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Your Gallery Needs You! A Call For Help
Thank You
Alex Prince Visitor Services Manager at Watts Gallery Enjoy a behind-the-scenes view of this exciting moment in the Gallery’s history by joining our community of volunteers Watts Gallery will re-open to the public in June and the contribution of our dedicated team of volunteers has played a huge part in making this possible. Collectively, we have received around 7,500 hours of volunteer time throughout 2010 and the list of names of voluntary contributors is growing every week. At the moment we are lucky enough to have one hundred and seventy volunteers but we will need around three hundred by the time we re-open so would be grateful for your help. Could you offer a couple of hours a week to steward our newly refurbished galleries? We offer training on the Gallery and collection and a full induction. Our enthusiastic community of volunteers also enjoy complementary copies of this Magazine, quarterly volunteer forums, various social gatherings and a 10% discount in the Shop and Tea Shop. One of our volunteers said: “Watts Gallery has a magical atmosphere. As a steward in the Gallery I feel part of the Victorian art world and learn more every week”. We are true to the Gallery’s original ethos of ‘Art for All’ so whether you are looking to meet like-minded people, acquire new skills, develop your CV, or learn more about Watts Gallery we are keen to welcome you to the team.
Your GallerY Needs
You! VoluNteer at Watts GallerY
On Monday 11 April 2011 between 10:30am and midday Watts Gallery will be hosting an open volunteer recruitment morning. You are invited to come along to the Gallery to meet our current volunteers and find out what makes being a part of the Watts Gallery team so special. If you cannot join us on the 11th but are still interested in volunteering at Watts Gallery please contact Alex Prince on 01483 813 580 or at visitorservices@wattsgallery.org.uk. Watts Gallery, Down Lane, Compton, Surrey GU3 1DQ 01483 810235 info@wattsgallery.org.uk www.wattsgallery.org.uk Edited and Designed by Andrew Churchill - Marketing Manager at Watts Gallery Printed by Selsey Press
Cert no. SA-COC-001885
Watts Gallery is deeply grateful to all its generous benefactors and major donors: Heritage Lottery Fund The Deborah Loeb Brice Foundation The Isabel Goldsmith Patino Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The George John & Sheilah Livanos Charitable Trust Richard Ormond CBE Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement English Heritage An Anonymous Donor Christopher Forbes J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust The Ingram Trust The Foyle Foundation Professor Rob Dickins CBE The Linbury Trust Art Fund David Pike Guildford Borough Council The Robert Gavron Charitable Trust Hamish Dewar Ltd Peter Harrison Foundation The John Ellerman Foundation The Finnis Scott Foundation The Restoration Fund The Wolfson Foundation The Mercers’ Company KPMG Foundation The Pilgrim Trust Surrey Hills LEADER The Billmeir Charitable Trust The Monument Trust The Wates Foundation Man Group plc Charitable Trust Oxford Exhibition Services Michael Marks Charitable Trust The Henry Moore Foundation Rothschild Foundation Foundation for Sport and the Arts Surrey County Council 3
Gallery, Friends and Patrons News Exclusive Friends Preview of Watts Gallery Watts Gallery will re-open to the public on Saturday 18 June following the £11 million restoration. The Friends of Watts Gallery will be the first to visit the restored Gallery on a special weekend opening in May. This special weekend is to thank the Friends for all their support of Watts Gallery. Friends will be sent an invitation. Please encourage others to join in-time to receive an invitation.
Tickets and Shop to be housed in the Old Pottery The tickets and shop for the restored Watts Gallery will be housed in the historic Old Pottery building on the Estate. This is the building at the front of the Watts Gallery Estate where we have had an Information Point throughout the restoration. We are grateful to the Davenports for helping us make this happen. This project has been generously funded by Surrey Hills LEADER and SEEDA.
Knit & Natter at Tea Shop Why not bring along your knitting for The Tea Shop at Watts Gallery knitting social? Come and share your skills or learn new ones. All are welcome, young and old. There is a 10% discount on all purchases for those with knitting needles in hand! Every Wednesday, 3.30-5pm. The Tea Shop is open Tuesday to Sunday 10.30am to 5pm. It is open on Bank Holidays but closes the Tuesday after a Bank Holiday. 4
Friends Visit: Watts in Wales, 12-15 Sep 2011 As Friends and Patrons you have the opportunity to join a small group visiting Wales in September. The trip will include visits to Eastnor Castle; Bodelwyddan Castle (above), the Welsh home of the National Portrait Gallery (where a number of Watts’s portraits are shown); the Walker Art Gallery and a private home, Downton House where you will be able to view rarely seen paintings and drawings by G F Watts. We will also visit the factory at Port Sunlight and tour the purpose-built workers’ village. We will stay at the 4-star Rowton Hall country house hotel, Chester and the cost for the trip will be £445 (single room supplement £75/person). This price includes coach travel, accommodation on a dinner, bed & breakfast basis, four lunches and all entrance fees. Not included: travel insurance and drinks. Booking forms can be obtained by calling 01483 810235 or email info@wattsgallery.org.uk.
Exclusive Patrons’ Events Alison Smith, Tate’s Head of British Art to 1900 and a Watts Gallery Adopter, has kindly offered to take Patrons around her forthcoming exhibition Watercolour on 2 March. This major exhibition will present a fresh assessment of the history of watercolour painting in Britain from its emergence in the Middle Ages to the present day. Alison’s private tour starts at 9am. Tickets are limited. The beautiful Hampshire home of the late Philip de Laszlo MVO (1869-1927), society portrait painter, is the venue of Patrons’ summer visit on 1 July. At the kind invitation of Sandra & Damon de Laszlo, Patrons will tour the family’s collection in the tudor mansion and then see the sculpture park and gardens in their full splendour. Starts 11am. For enquiries about either of these events please contact: Stephanie Dennison on 01483 810235. or appeal@wattsgallery.org.uk
The Director’s Restoration Update Perdita Hunt
Photograph by Anne Purkiss
Director of Watts Gallery
Rather like the legendary star in the Wattsian sky, it would appear that out of chaos and despair, there is hope - hope that the restoration of Watts Gallery, the largest undertaking in the last hundred years, is nearing completion! As the building re-emerges, my gratitude is boundless to all those who shared the vision of saving this hidden gem, and who gave so much money, time, advice, encouragement, advocacy, support and objects. The Trustees of foundations who took a leap of faith, the individuals who joined the Friends, the volunteers who stuck with us through 2.5 years of closure, the wonderful benefactors, Trustees and committee members who have been heroic and generous and finally the neighbours, tenants, businesses and staff who have put up with mud, noise, contractor vehicles and disturbance - all of you who have helped in securing Watts Gallery for another hundred years! I can now announce that Watts Gallery will re-open its doors to the public on Saturday 18 June 2011! Before then we enter a busy time of checking the environment, hanging the collection, training the staff and stewards, preparing the Shop and Ticket Office, preparing the Tea Shop and its staff for hungry visitors, and producing
publications to ensure that visitors gain the maximum from their stay. We will be having a few events in May, to offer a preview to all those who have shown us such support during the restoration, not least the Friends of Watts Gallery. When we re-open we shall be seeking a large number of stewards to help us in the Gallery and Shop. Although we now have over 170 volunteers, many of whom have been with us since 2005, we would be so grateful to gain some new recruits to join the team. We offer an excellent introduction to the Collection, a monthly newsletter, a quarterly meeting for discussing progress, events and seeking feedback, and there are lots of options for furthering your involvement - becoming a guide, helping in the garden, working on events, and supporting the Learning Team. We would be so grateful for any offers of support, even if it is doing a slot once or twice a month. I look forward to welcoming you in to Watts Gallery a national gallery in the heart of a village, which all of you have helped to save. Follow Perdita’s blog at www.wattsgallery.org.uk
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Collection and Exhibition News Mark Bills Curator of Watts Gallery
As the completion of the building draws near we are getting ready to install everything we need for the arrival of the collection, such as cases, picture racking and book shelves. Almost complete in the Sculpture Gallery are the great mid-Victorian mahogany cases that were designed for Kew Gardens by the eminent architect and designer Decimus Burton (1800–1881). These enormous cases that have been carefully restored by Gavin Hussey, will allow us to show our rich collection of plaster sculpture and Compton Pottery, works which otherwise would have had to remain in storage. The objects will include Watts’s sketches in three dimensions for his paintings alongside body casts and death masks, all of which were an essential part of the artist’s studio. Preparation also includes all the work that is needed to provide information for visitors to the newly opened gallery. A new guide book is being published alongside An Artists’ Village which tells the history of the Watts’s Compton from the building of Limnerslease through the chapel and pottery to the creation of Watts Gallery. It has also been important to prepare an exhibition programme that can live up to the new gallery and works from the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery will form part of the forthcoming exhibition programme.
Top George Frederic Watts, Fiesole, 1844-45, Watts Gallery Collection Above Cabinets by the Victorian architect Decimus Burton in the Sculpture Gallery.
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The Watts Gallery has worked with the University of Surrey and De Morgan Foundation in setting up an exhibition of the drawings of Evelyn De Morgan at the Lewis Elton Gallery. I can remember working on the first retrospective of the artist in 1997 at the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum and I can recommend the exhibition as her drawings are quite astonishing. On an international note, the exhibition, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones andThe Myth of Italy inVictorian England, at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome from the 24 February, will include paintings and an essay on the influence of Italy on Watts. Follow Mark’s blog at www.wattsgallery.org.uk
Keeping It In The Family: Relatives Adopt A Watts Stephanie Dennison Fundraising Manager at Watts Gallery Interest in progress at Watts Gallery Nigel’s daughter Elizabeth recently truly is international. The most recent began to research their family history. adoption under the Adopt A Watts Scheme is by Nigel Prescott and his family in Perth, Australia of the portrait of Cornelius (1836). Cornelius Watts was the son of Thomas Watts, the artist’s half-brother. Nigel says: ‘As a child growing up in Australia, I was aware of the family connection to G F Watts through his nephew Cornelius. We knew, in part through Amy Watts’ diary, that her father Cornelius and his wife Clara had migrated to Australia in 1850, (sailing on the Una) and that our family is descended from him through his eldest daughter Frances.’
‘We contacted the Gallery to see if anyone could shed any further light
on our research and could hardly believe our luck when they not only confirmed the link but told us that there was a portrait of Cornelius in the painter’s private collection,’ says Elizabeth. ‘It’s a beautiful portrait and one that my father Nigel was very happy to adopt on behalf of our family.’ The Prescott’s adoption supports the ongoing care of the painting for the next five years. The family plan to travel to see their adopted work in the restored Gallery in June. If you’d like to enquire about the Adopt A Watts Scheme, please contact Stephanie Dennison, at appeal@wattsgallery.org.uk
Guildford International Music Festival 5 - 26 March A celebration of live music across venues in Guildford
Featuring artists including John Williams • Paco Peña • Sir Willard White • Nicola Benedetti • Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and Claire Martin Red Priest • Bollywood Brass Band • Henri Oguike Dance Company • Warsaw Village Band • Pluck • The Bloomsbury Boys
For booking and further details, visit www.guildfordinternationalmusicfestival.co.uk Box Offices: 01483 444334 / 01483 444789
www.guildfordinternationalmusicfestival.co.uk
Pictured: Red Priest who will be presenting Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in an evening of completely wild and deeply imaginative music making. IAX009
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The Latest Views Of The Restoration Of Watts Gallery Anne Purkiss Photographer
Top row from left The Weston Gallery and the Isabel Goldsmith Patino Gallery taken from one of the three arches. The parquet floor has been replaced and is here covered in protective sheets.
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The Weston Gallery and the Livanos Gallery. The original wall covering is in red and the new covering is in white. Both will be painted in the deep red Watts preferred his paintings to be hung against.
In the Richard Jefferies Gallery the new staircase has been made from the stone from the staircase that was originally in this gallery.
Bottom row from left The balcony leading from the new Showcase Gallery to the Exhibitions Gallery. It is these two galleries which will house our exciting programme of changing exhibitions.
Physical Energy by G F Watts is covered in plastic following careful conservation. The new glass doors (see also, the front cover) will allow visitors to see into the Sculpture Gallery.
The original welsh dresser in what was previously the Director’s office has been carefully protected throughout the restoration and is now unveiled with a fresh coat of paint as part of the John George Archive and Study Room.
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Watts Lecture 2011: Dickens Struggles With The Old Masters Mark Bills Curator of Watts Gallery Charles Dickens is one of those rare individuals who define an age, and the Dickensian age was the age of G F Watts. Both had an interest in the old masters, one as a writer, and the other as an artist. This year’s Watts Lecture (Wed 9 March) is given by the Director of the National Gallery, Nicholas Penny, an authority on old master painting. His lecture Dickens Struggles with the Old Masters will explore some of the occasions on which Dickens refers to paintings, old and new, in his novels and elsewhere and also the attitudes to the National Gallery found in his journal Household Words. Charles Dickens is an extraordinarily visual writer whose writings are full of references to the visual arts. In Pictures from Italy (1846) the author records his impressions of places and pictures from his extended visit thorough the country, at a time when Watts was residing there. Impressions of the Sistine Chapel, which Watts was experiencing at the same time, are included in his descriptions of familiar places for the English visitor. In his novels, paintings of the old masters appear, and Dickens used his growing knowledge of paintings to reflect the nature and morality of his characters. Nicholas Penny’s lecture will illuminate these moments which reveal the author’s own opinions of paintings. Watts admired the way in which Dickens dealt with social themes, his sympathetic depiction of the downtrodden and unfortunates of society. In Found Drowned (c1848-50) and his social-realist paintings of the 1840s we see the closest that Watts comes to Dickens in paint. Ultimately Watts aspired to a ‘high’ art which he considered more poetic than the art of Dickens as he dismissively wrote: ‘Much as we admire their genius, we should not wish Hogarth to illustrate the Book of Job, or Dickens to translate Dante’. As one of the greatest and most influential writers of the nineteenth Century, Dickens’ views and use of the visual arts in his writing are so important to our understanding of Victorian art. We are delighted that such an eminent art historian and speaker has agreed to give the Watts lecture on this fascinating subject. Watts Lecture 2011 Nicholas Penny, Director of the National Gallery. Dickens Struggles with the Old Masters Wed 9 March 2011, 6.30-7.30pm, Hall, Charterhouse, Godalming £6.50 - Book tickets online at www.wattsgallery.org.uk or call 01483 810235. In partnership with the Art Department, Charterhouse. In the summer of 2012 Watts Gallery will be hosting an exhibition that explores Dickens and the visual arts as part of the bi-centenary celebrations.
Top Charles Dickens, The Rob Dickins Collection at Watts Gallery Above George Frederic Watts, Found Drowned (detail), c1848-1850 . Watts Gallery Collection Left Phiz (Hablot K. Browne), Instinct Stronger than Training (detail), 1856, etching from Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens.
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Enabling Great Art In Watts’s Great Studio Perdita Hunt Director of Watts Gallery
At a time when we are about to bring about a revival in the interest of George Frederic Watts by opening the restored Watts Gallery to the public and showing Watts’s paintings, sculptures and drawings refreshed by loving conservation, Trustees of Watts Gallery are delighted that Watts’s Great Studio, currently leased by Watts Gallery Trust, will be occupied by an artist of international stature, who shares the empathy and ambitions of Watts. The resurgence of Compton as a centre of innovation and creative energy is really taking place and we are honoured and delighted to collaborate with Alexander Creswell on his exciting journey of discovery; 'Enabling Great Art in Watts's Great Studio. Alexander Creswell will be hosting a private exhibition at his home in Ewhurst. Funding for the “Enabling Great Art in Watts’s Great Studio” will come directly from sales made at this exhibition. This exhibition is a remarkable opportunity for the Patrons and Friends of Watts Gallery not only to enjoy work by the acclaimed artist, Alexander Creswell, prior to his period in the Great Studio, but also to view his house which like Watts Gallery was designed by Christopher Turnor. Turnor worked on designs for Copse Hill in Ewhurst in 1905, just a year after the opening of Watts Gallery. Alexander’s children are the fourth generation to grow-up in the house. Alexander Creswell may be best known for the large series of watercolours he painted of Windsor Castle for the Royal Collection depicting the Fire and Restoration in 1993 & 1997. Before that, his book and paintings, ‘The Silent Houses of Britain’ had caught the public imagination and gained critical acclaim establishing his career within the long tradition of British watercolourists. Recognition of his work has brought many important commissions from great public institutions and private collectors alongside a continuous progression of exhibitions around the world. He has regular solo shows in London, New York and Dubai.
Above Alexander Creswell Baldacchino in St Peter's, Rome, 2005 Charcoal 40 x 28 ins Left Alexander Creswell Arch of Constantine, Rome, 2006 Watercolour 85 x 48 ins
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Above Alexander Creswell Dunalistair Castle - The Silent Piano from The Silent Houses of Britain, 1991 Watercolour 22 x 30 ins
In 2006 Creswell broke all bounds of his medium when he produced a collection of watercolours on a grand scale demonstrating an unrivalled technical skill. In painting these vast works (up to nine feet in length) Creswell was rebelling against the tradition of small scale watercolours. He pushed his medium to new heights of experimentation. When these works were exhibited in New York the results were described as “nothing short of extraordinary”. This private exhibition will be a journey, in paintings and sketches, through Creswell’s travels in pursuit of great architecture and the spirit of place. From imperial splendour in Europe, the magnitude of classical Rome, the bustle of North Africa, sunlight in France, fireworks in Venice to the architecture and beauty of classic yachts in waters around the world. To Launch “Enabling Great Art in Watts’s Great Studio” Alexander Creswell invites Friends and Patrons of Watts Gallery to a Private Exhibition & Sale of his paintings at the Artist’s home in Ewhurst, Surrey. 18-20, 23, 25-27 March 2011 (11am-4pm). The exhibition can be viewed in full online from 11 March at www.alexandercreswell.com An invitation for the exhibition is enclosed with this Magazine for Friends and Patrons of Watts Gallery. To request more information please contact info@wattsgallery.org.uk or kate@alexandercreswell.com. We are grateful to Richard Conway and Julia Kemp for their assistance.
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Alexander Creswell: The Rebel Watercolourist Dr Gregory Hedberg Director of European Art at Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York One might consider the moniker ‘rebel’ inappropriate for an English watercolourist whose subjects include great architectural treasures of the past and whose work is collected in depth by HM The Queen. In fact, Creswell has been rebelling all his life. At a time when watercolour as a medium had fallen out of favour with contemporary artists and was only used by Sunday painters, Creswell embraced the medium as a young artist because of the spontaneity it allowed. An oil painting can be worked and reworked, but a watercolour is ruined in one timid or slow movement with the hand. Moreover, at a time when the great architectural treasures of the past were not considered worthy subjects, Creswell rebelled again and insisted on painting whatever he chose. Throughout his career, Creswell has also defied the traditional frontal format for architectural views that captures the entire facade - the old fashioned ‘postcard view’. From ancient and Renaissance monuments in Italy to the bridges of New York, Creswell repeatedly gives us unexpected angles and up-close views of famous architecture. In his hands these iconic structures are not treated as standard textbook images, but amazingly complex surfaces articulated with light and shadow.
Above Alexander Creswell Queensboro Bridge, New York, 2006 Watercolour 83 x 45 ins Left Alexander Creswell Stupinigi, the King's Bedroom, Turin, Italy, 2005, Watercolour 40 x 36 ins
Extract from an essay Alexander Creswell: A Modern Rebel (2006) by Dr Gregory Hedberg, Director of European Art at Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York
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The Ideal and The Erotic Drawings By Evelyn De Morgan Claire Longworth Curator, De Morgan Foundation George Frederic Watts said of Evelyn De Morgan: “I look upon her as the first woman artist of the day — if not of all time”. Evelyn De Morgan née Pickering was born on 30 August 1855. Early on Evelyn decided she wanted to be an artist and persuaded her parents to allow her to enrol at the Slade School of Art in 1873, two years after it had opened. The classical training she received under the then Principal, Edward Poynter, influenced her choice of subject matter and composition. Her uncle, the artist Roddam Spencer Stanhope, was another major influence on her work. He lived in Florence and Evelyn made many trips to see him and to study the Renaissance masters, particularly Botticelli and his Florentine contemporaries. It was here that she began to move away from classical subjects favoured by the Slade and her own distinctive style of allegory and symbolism emerged.
Above Evelyn De Morgan, The Rob Dickins Collection at Watts Gallery
She was one of the founder exhibitors at the Grosvenor Gallery, the avant-garde alternative to the Royal Academy where she exhibited alongside work by Watts, Sir Edward Burne Jones and Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema. Evelyn died in 1919 aged 64, she continued to paint until a few days before her death. In partnership with the De Morgan Foundation and Watts Gallery an exhibition is being held at the Lewis Elton Gallery, University of Surrey in February, ‘The Ideal and the Erotic: Drawings by Evelyn De Morgan’. Evelyn De Morgan’s many paintings and drawings of the female nude are informed by her adherence to the classical ideal of the human form in art and her deep interest in spiritualism. But there is also a distinctive erotic sensibility evident in them. The exposure of the body through images of the nude was one of the most controversial issues in Victorian art. 19th-century artists were pushing boundaries to use the nude body in ways never allowed before, fuelling intense debates about the relationship between art and public morals.
‘The Ideal and the Erotic: Drawings by Evelyn De Morgan’ at Lewis Elton Gallery, University of Surrey until 17 February 2011. Free entry. Monday - Friday, 10am - 5pm. Access at the weekends is by prior appointment only. Please telephone us on 01483 686641 or 01483 682167 to arrange your visit.
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The exhibition explores the divide between naked and nude – the presentation of aestheticised and idealized forms as opposed to the raw, awkward reality of the unclothed body and in so doing places both the artist and today’s viewer in the role of voyeur.
All images Evelyn De Morgan, De Morgan Collection
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Falling in Love With Watts My Path to Becoming A Trustee Emma Verey Trustee of Watts Gallery It all came about because I fell in love with a picture that was lent to the Tate. It is of Paulo and Francesca, Dante’s lovers, condemned for ever, to encircle the winds of Hell, because they had run off with one another. I think that it is one of the most romantic images ever painted, and every time I look at it I feel that if you can be held like that, well then Hell itself really can’t be too bad. As I stood gazing, a friend, Richard Dorment, Chief Art Critic at The Telegraph and a Trustee of Watts Gallery, tapped me on the shoulder, and a few days later after a hair raising drive down the A3, with Richard Ormond (Chairman of the Trustees) driving and Richard Dorment in the back, neither looking at the road as they enthused about Watts and the Gallery, we arrived. And then there was a change of pace. We walked up a path lined with primroses, round a corner and there was the Gallery, overgrown and sleepy. We stepped through a heavy oak door that took me straight back to my childhood and we were in. And I was in. Of course I wanted to try and help. That was back in 2005, when the Gallery was on its knees. Though full of charm it had reached the point after a100 years, where, unless intervention happened it was going to fall apart, disappear back into the landscape and have its collection dispersed. Over the next few months we came very close to that moment. Dispersal of the collection was discussed, as an absolute last resort. It’s hard to remember that now, but it was discussed.
Top Paolo and Francesca, George Frederic Watts, 1872-75, Watts Gallery Collection. Above Emma Verey, Trustee of Watts Gallery with her signed tile for the roof of Watts Gallery. This article is taken from a speech given by Emma Verey at the Society of Antiquaries to the Old Houses, New Visions group chaired by Giles Waterfield.
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To avoid that outcome, it was unanimously agreed that we should launch a capital campaign to raise the money to restore the building and to preserve the collection. And so I found myself moving from the simple happy position of just being in love with a painting to being one of a group of Trustees involved in helping a small Gallery run a capital campaign. I am not sure that the words ‘run a capital campaign’ convey quite what a mad, crazy, ambitious and outrageous idea that was at the time. We were to attempt to raise £10 million for an artist fallen completely out of favour, an artist that most people had never heard of; for a gallery hidden away in a fold of the Surrey hills, well off the beaten track, with very low visitor numbers. “Why try?” many people asked, or, if they didn’t say that, they‘d say “oh but you mustn’t change it”. The answers to both being “what? just let the gallery rot back into the ground and disappear?” What made the whole idea possible however was our one very powerful advantage. Perdita Hunt had agreed to become the Director and to take on the campaign. And I can say that when the Gallery reopens this year it will be entirely due to her unceasing efforts with a wonderful team, a band of committed volunteers and a growing Friends organisation. Together we have achieved what many thought would be impossible, and I am very proud to have played a small part in saving the Watts Gallery for the next 100 years.
Emma Dunbar, September Field Seagulls
Emma Dunbar / Solo 4 March - 2 April
Fiona Millais, Coast Path
Fiona Millais / Solo 6 May - 4 June
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