ISSUE NO 16 Winter 2012/13
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Mark Bills on William and Evelyn De Morgan Jonathan Chiswell-Jones on the Allure of Lustreware Mary McMahon on Artist-in-Residence Helen Jarvis Helen Bowcock on the legacy of Victorian Philanthropy Richard Fawkes introduces Geraldine James as Mary Watts 1
19th Century Paintings, Drawings & Watercolours Wednesday 23 January 2013 New Bond Street, London Entries now invited Closing date for entries: Friday 30 November 2012
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London +44 20 7468 8360 charles.obrien@bonhams.com Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt., ARA (British, 1833-1898) The Days of Creation (detail) pencil ÂŁ150,000 - 250,000
International Auctioneers and Valuers - bonhams.com/19thcentury
DIRECTOR’S INTRODUCTION
The interiror of Limnerslease. Photograph by Anne Purkiss
Perdita Hunt, Director of Watts Gallery
Despite the impact of the Olympics, Watts Gallery has enjoyed a successful summer through the appeal and quality of the Dickens and the Artists exhibition. The exhibition has been covered and universally praised in all the leading media, and the feedback from the many group tours who have visited has been 100% positive. This is encouraging as evidence of the Gallery’s need to continue to present ground-breaking exhibitions of national importance which throw a new light on art in the 19th Century. We are delighted that following this exhibition we shall be presenting a look at another creative partnership, William and Evelyn De Morgan, exploring in part their relationship with G.F. and Mary Watts. This exhibition is followed by an exhibition of the work of Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, a less well-known Pre-Raphaelite painter.
Our efforts to save the Watts house and studios are becoming more urgent. The loans are due to be repaid by the end of next year. We still are seeking the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund. We still cannot meet the demand of people who wish to see inside the place where G.F. Watts and Mary Seton Watts worked, and Trustees are awaiting final confirmation of management of the Watts Chapel until we have secured the studios as this will provide the key centre for visitor interpretation of Mary Watts and the Chapel. Every gift counts at this stage and we are immensely grateful to those who have provided gifts and pledges and found yet more funds to support a sponsored swim across the Solent. Every gift helps to persuade Heritage Lottery Fund and other donors that we cannot afford to lose this once-in-alifetime chance of saving the last and vital part of an artists’ village.
We have a festive feast of treats including a performance by the actress Geraldine James playing Mary Watts in a specially scripted performance taken from Mary’s diaries, written by Richard Fawkes. Two performances will be given in the Watts Studio. We are planning an exciting Christmas with free activities throughout December as well as 2 for 1 entry everyday. The Big Give 2012 runs from 6-8 December when your donations can be doubled. See the enclosed postcard for more details. The Shop will be showing a special Christmas range and we have on sale Christmas cards designed by women prisoners from HMP Send with whom the Watts Gallery Artist in Residence, funded by the Michael Varah Memorial Fund, has been working. I look forward to welcoming you all back to Watts Gallery and may I thank you all - donors, Friends, volunteers, visitors and neighbours - for your continuing support and inspiration.
WINSOR & NEWTON WATTS PAINTING PRIZE Deme Georghiou has been awarded this year’s Winsor & Newton Watts Painting Prize for his painting Tracy (right). Michael Henderson, Chairman of Winsor & Newton gave Deme his prize of £1,000 of art materials and commented “Deme is an artist of great promise and will therefore follow in the footsteps of other very worthy winners of the prize.”
This is the sixth year that Winsor & Newton have supported the prize and we are very grateful to them for their continuted support. 3
COUNTESS CORK
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COLLECTION & VICTORIAN ART NEWS Mark Bills, Curator of Watts Gallery We are delighted that Dickens and the Artists has created such excitement and that press and visitors have responded so positively to it. ‘All praise to the Watts Gallery for mounting this engrossing exhibition,’ wrote the Burlington Magazine which went on to acknowledge the new research that went into its creation, noting that the catalogue (still available in the shop) is ‘excellent and stimulating, a fundamental source for future scholars.’ It has been a real delight to see such iconic Victorian paintings here at the Watts Gallery. We hope that this has set the tone of what is to follow and is establishing the Watts Gallery as a centre for study, celebration and display of Victorian art. The stunning portrait of Countess Cork will remain at the Gallery until January 2013 when the Watts Gallery will make an application to the Art Fund for its acquisition. In the meantime the Gallery has acquired a number of small but important additions to its collection including a life-size plaster bust of Ellen Terry by the Scottish sculptor, William Brodie. It has also acquired books, including the pledge of many Victorian periodicals, which represent a significant addition to the library at Watts Gallery. It is always astonishing to note the breadth of influence that Watts had and a recent visit from the Prince Eugen Museum in Stockholm revealed that the royal Scandanavian
left G F Watts, The Countess Cork, Private Collection right G F Watts, Clytie, Watts Gallery Collection
artist visited Compton in 1896 whilst the chapel was under construction. Copies of letters of the prince to Watts and about his experience at Compton have now been added to the archive. Visitors will have noticed that the terracotta Clytie has been restored and fitted back in its position in the Sunken Garden. This was carried out by students of the City & Guilds who stayed at Limnerslease for four weeks whilst they carried out the work. They also completed work on the Wattses pet cemetery and included the graves of Jerry, their black and tan friend and Ming the Pekinese and the sweet Latin
inscription ‘tota in minumus’. The big news for Victorian art at the moment is the Tate’s extraordinary Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-garde exhibition. There is, until January 2013, the rare opportunity of seeing all the major Pre-Raphaelite paintings together in one exhibition. This ambitious survey is breathtaking in its scope and explores, through seven themes, the defining ideas of the movement. From its origins to its later manifestations, we see how vital, fresh and inspiring is the vision retained within these canvasses. An exhibition not to miss and to visit more than once. 5
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WILLIAM AND EVELYN DE MORGAN: TWO OF THE RAREST SPIRITS OF THE AGE Mark Bills, Curator of Watts Gallery
left William De Morgan, Blackbird Bottle,1888-1907 The De Morgan Foundation right Evelyn De Morgan, Aurora Triumphans, 1886 Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum
Evelyn and William De Morgan was one of the great creative partnerships of the Victorian art world. In our latest exhibition, we explore the art that emerged from this extraordinary relationship, exhibiting the resplendent pots and tiles of William counterpointed with the vivid colour and high seriousness of Evelyn’s painted allegories. Watts Gallery is an ideal location for the exhibition, not only because the Wattses knew the De Morgans, but because they sympathised so much with the aims of their art. The bottle kiln at Compton, where the decorations of the Cemetery Chapel were fired, for example, was built on the advice of William De Morgan. Each married couple consisted of a painter and a designer who lived
an artistic life, sharing ideas and a common spiritual belief, resulting in a combined ethos that was manifest in their art and design. William De Morgan shared with Mary Watts a passion for decorative art that had arisen from a background in fine art. Mary studied at the Slade School of Art and William at the Royal Academy. He was, like Mary, and their great mentor William Morris, a painter who turned to the decorative arts, distinguished through producing designs that aspired to the highest ideals of art. William De Morgan also spoke to Watts on technical questions advising him that he should use ordinary distemper prepared as it is in Italy rather than the modern English equivalent.
William De Morgan is one of the greatest and certainly the best known potters of the Victorian period, his wonderful glazes have a richness and softness that stand out from his contemporaries. His great colleague Halsey Ricardo wrote of ‘the pools of colour into which one can dive and scarce plumb the full depth’. De Morgan was inspired by the rich tradition of historic Isnik pottery which he had first seen at the South Kensington Museum. His rich imagery, particularly his inventive and often comic bestiary, was drawn from medieval manuscripts transformed through his own imagination. As Alan Crawford reflected, ‘one never knew there could be so many varieties of amiable dragon’.
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above William De Morgan, Snake and Cypress Treea Tile Panel,1872-1907 The De Morgan Foundation right Evelyn De Morgan, Phosphorus and Hesperus, 1881 The De Morgan Foundation
Although on occasion William had advised the Wattses on technical questions it was De Morgan who looked to G.F. Watts for inspiration and he wrote to Mary after the death of Signor in 1904: ‘My gratitude is great indeed to Signor, both for his Art and its teaching. All will lay stress on the latter who suspect, as I do, that the death of a man is the birth of a soul—I suppose we shall know all about it before very long—all of us!’ De Morgan’s letter also reflects the De Morgan’s spiritualist belief, knowing too that Watts was an honorary member of the Institute of Physical Research. Whether the Wattses ever joined the séances of the De Morgans is unclear, but the results of these sessions, which were published anonymously, make clear a similar spiritual position common to 8
both couples; it was a religion of spirit above material possessions and light above darkness. One of the voices of the spirit angels recorded by the De Morgans from a séance could be the words of the Wattses themselves: ‘Strive upwards; think no evil and love the light. Toil on in faith, and what the day brings accept humbly, and with the earnest desire to do your best and make the many your lives influence as happy as you can.’ Evelyn De Morgan’s paintings reflected her spirituality and have a rare closeness to the work of Watts whom she so admired. Like Watts she detested ‘Mammonism’ and fought, through her allegorical paintings, to express the importance of striving for a spiritual existence
rather than striving for material possessions. Watts had known Evelyn as a child and according to Mrs Stirling [Evelyn’s sister] ‘Watts enthusiastically pronounced him [her brother Spencer Pickering] and his sister Evelyn to be the most beautiful children he had ever seen,’ but it was when she was older that she benefitted from the advice of Watts when she regularly met him at Little Holland House. Mrs Barrington recalled that ‘only the most intimate were admitted in the evening hours, and that but rarely. Among these were Mrs. De Morgan (then Miss Pickering), Miss Ida Verner, both artists, and my sister, Mrs. Greg.’ Here Watts would discuss art and techniques and never lost interest in his protégés. When Mrs Barrington, met Watts in Italy she recalled that: ‘He wanted to know
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Evelyn De Morgan, Ariadne in Naxos, 1877 The De Morgan Foundation
about the probabilities of the forthcoming R.A., and especially what Mrs. De Morgan had been doing.’ There is little doubt that Watts admired Evelyn’s painting and he noted that ‘she is a long way ahead of all the women,’ he stated on one occasion, ‘and considerably ahead of most of the men. I look upon her as the first woman-artist of the day—if not of all time.’ Great praise from Watts and the exhibition contains several of Evelyn’s paintings including her great masterpiece, Aurora Triumphans (1886, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum), first exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery exhibition of 1886 as The Dawn. It depicts Aurora (on the right), the goddess of dawn overcoming the bonds of Nox (on the left), the goddess of night. The trumpeting angels 10
and rose-tinted hues herald the dawning of early morning. Symbolically the painting celebrates the triumph of light over darkness and reflects Evelyn’s deeply help Spiritualist beliefs. On its exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery reviewers called it a ‘most striking conception’, and it is a resplendent picture. Painted a year before her marriage to William De Morgan it is a pivotal work in her output where the balance between the Neo-classicism of her earlier work is equally matched by the imaginative and visionary nature of her later paintings. Evelyn De Morgan was often compared with Edward BurneJones, and this work was no exception. Unusually at some point in its history it gained a false signature ‘EBJ 1876’, possibly to pass the work off as a Burne-
Jones and it has been suggested that Evelyn’s monogram of the time EP (Evelyn Pickering) could have been easily changed to EBJ although the date is a decade out. It seems at some point this signature raised doubts as to the authorship of the painting as this was vigorously denied by Evelyn’s sister Mrs Stirling who wrote ‘I am in a position to deny most emphatically that Burne-Jones did one single stroke of the picture.’
William and Evelyn De Morgan 6 November 2012 27 January 2013. Watts Gallery is grateful to the De Morgan Centre, the principal lender to the exhibition and the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum whose generous loans made this exhibition possible.
CULTURAL TOURS & MUSIC HOLIDAYS f o r
d i s c e r n i n g
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The Kirker Chopin Festival in Mallorca A six Night Holiday | 26 September 2013
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Cellist Guy Johnson will join him for one concert and classical guitarist Morgan Szymanski and organist Oliver Condy will both give recitals in the lovely church at Banyalbufar, the pretty village on the glorious north coast of the island where the tour is based. Price from ÂŁ1,566 for six nights including flights, transfers, accommodation with breakfast, six dinners, five concerts and a full programme of sightseeing.
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Pianist Melvyn Tan will play in three special concerts at the monastery in Valldemossa where Chopin and George Sand stayed in 1838/39.
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HELEN JARVIS: FRACTURED SPACE Mary McMahon, Curatorial Fellow at Watts Gallery
far left Helen Jarvis, Rafters (detail), acrylic on canvas, 2012 left Helen Jarvis, Hota Water, Skeletons, Heat, in the Artist in Residence studio, Watts Gallery, 2012 Photographs by Anne Purkiss
Each year Watts Gallery appoints a graduate from the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham to become Artist-in-Residence. Instigated through the generous support of Winsor and Newton this scheme is now in its eighth year. Helen Jarvis (Artist-inResidence 2011-12) has worked in the onsite studio and taken inspiration from the surrounding building. She has also supported the Art for All Learning and Outreach programme at the Gallery, most notably through her popular ‘Introduction to Painting Processes’ courses. Helen Jarvis’ final exhibition Fractured Space provides a valuable opportunity for the viewer to look at the gallery
and estate in a new light, with the focus falling upon the often unnoticed elements of design within this functional space. Whether taking inspiration from the distinctive heating grates of the Gallery floor, the water pipes in the corner of her studio or the pattern within a gate on the route up to Limnerslease, these design details are broken down and abstracted. Helen’s dedication and attention to detail is apparent in works such as Maths, where a vast section of the canvas is filled with meticulously hand painted grid paper. In the image Corona a tile pattern originally found on the external facade of the Gallery is beautifully and precisely reconstructed and placed in a setting akin to a mountain range, 13
above Helen Jarvis, Conduit, 2011 right Helen Jarvis, Skeletons, 2012 Photographs by Anne Purkiss
produced through the layering of paint washes. Throughout Fractured Space Helen Jarvis confronts the viewer with layered and abstracted scenes. By building images through washes of colour and small details she creates her own acrylic landscapes. The drips and textures built upon the surface of the canvas link to Helen’s desire to play with the concept of artistic control. These organic developments are used to guide the work to its final stages and make each an individual. Keen to show the process of image-making, Helen leaves her work unframed so that the various layers of paint can be seen. These ‘uneasy spaces’ are intended to 14
engage the viewer, but also to unsettle them in the manner of ‘street lamps on in the day time’. Helen’s interest in the material and its relationship to the viewer can be seen in her observational images of feathers, in ink on paper (Untitled, 2012). The process is highlighted by water that has been dripped onto the image, distressing and warping the original. The affected surface is robbed of colour but draws attention to its materiality. The damaged nature of the image creates a sense of unease. Fractured Space includes a collection of Helen’s print transfers that stem from her photography of day-to-day life.
The transfers give selections of an original, with aspects covered and uncovered. The process of choice is therefore at the forefront of the image, and through the visible process and effect of transfer. Helen is in control of the finished print.
Helen Jarvis: Fractured Space will be on show in the Old Pottery Building, Watts Gallery Estate, 2 October – 4 November 2012 With thanks to K.D. Fine Art Ltd. Please note: there is currently no access to the first floor for disabled people.
Visit our new website! www.artsandcraftsliving.co.uk Beautiful and useful home interiors and gifts inspired by the style of the Arts & Crafts era (c. 1860 - 1930)
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Jonathan Chiswell-Jones, Peacock Plate, 2012 the artist, photograph by Kerry Bosworth
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THE ALCHEMY OF LUSTRE AND CHASING THE RAINBOW Jonathan Chiswell-Jones, Ceramicist
CHASING THE RAINBOW
An exhibition of lusterware pots by the ceramicist Jonathan Chiswell-Jones will coincide with the display of works by William De Morgan to look at the process of producing lustreware as used by a contemporary artist. Chiswell-Jones’s work is both beautiful and practical, and accentuates the role of light and colour in lustreware. Here Jonathan discusses the process of creating such delicate work, and the moment that he first discovered the work of William De Morgan.
THE ALCHEMY OF LUSTRE William De Morgan wrote: “The secret of making lustre on pottery has been rediscovered times without number.” Here is how to do it: First make and fire a pot, dip it in glaze and re-fire. Then mix silver or copper compounds with clay, and paint a design with this muddy mixture on the glazed surface of the pot. Now fire the pot again, but to a temperature, which does not melt the glaze, but is hot enough to allow the silver or copper to enter the glaze. When you reach this temperature, exclude oxygen from the kiln. De
Morgan did this by piling on an excess of fuel. It can be done in other ways. The temperature will fall. When it becomes too cool, the flame must be allowed to burn cleanly again. Repeat the process until you have the results you want. How do you know what is happening in the kiln during the firing? By taking little rings from the hot kiln and watching the development of the lustre on them. When the kiln is cool, take the pots out, wash and polish off the unwanted residue of each brushstroke. With luck, and with experience, you will reveal a reflective metal layer attached to the glaze, which as a tenth century potter from Egypt put it: “Shines like the sun.”
I remember the exact moment when I was shown Richard Denis’ book on the work of William De Morgan. It was a revelation. His use of colour, of complex pattern and varied subject matter opened my eyes to what could be done to decorate a pot. At the same time, fate took me on a four-day course on lustreware with the late Marjorie Clinton in Scotland. I began to explore what could be done by firing mixtures of silver, copper and clay onto the surface of a glaze to reflect light. Early results merely confirmed how tricky it was to get the right balance of clay paste, glaze, temperature, coloured ground and above all the exclusion of oxygen during part of the firing. But in every kiln there was enough to tempt me on – something to improve, something to wonder about, something to try and repeat. Marjorie called this ‘chasing the rainbow.’ That was 14 years, 100 firings and 5000 pots ago. Jonathan Chiswell-Jones: Ceramics Old Pottery Building, Watts Gallery Estate 6 November 2012 – 27 January 2013. All works are for sale. With thanks to K.D. Fine Art Ltd. 17
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RECOLLECTIONS OF SIGNOR: AN EVENING WITH MARY WATTS Written by Richard Fawkes and starring Geraldine James
In 1886 George Frederic Watts married for the second time. His first wife, whom he had married when he was forty-seven and she was sixteen going on seventeen, was Ellen Terry, who was destined to become one of the greatest actresses of her time. The marriage, perhaps for obvious reasons with such an age and personality difference, didn’t last and before the year was out, Watts had sent Ellen back to her mother. His second marriage, therefore, came as something of a surprise. He was, after all, thirty years older than Mary, he was not in the best of health and he had always had a considerable number of ladies of a certain age vying to look after him. But Mary proved to be a redoubtable wife, seeing off the others and helping keep Watts before the public until his death in 1904, still working, still full of ideas. To the outside world Mary’s marriage may have seemed a little sad. Admittedly she was in her late thirties and a little quiet perhaps, but with the blush of youth still about her. And here she was yoking herself to an invalid of sixty-nine. On the other hand, to others (perhaps not untinged with jealousy) Mary appeared to be doing well for herself. Her family, though distinguished, was impoverished. What could be
Left Mary Watts, photographer unknown right Geraldine James
more advantageous than to marry an old man nearly twice her age and live for the rest of her life on his fame and money? In Recollections of Signor, the distinguished actress Geraldine James, plays the part of Mary Watts talking about her marriage to Watts, and, in particular, their life at Limnerslease. The words she speaks are drawn from the correspondence and writings of friends, colleagues and journalists, and, most importantly, from Mary’s journals. Mary died in 1938 having outlived Watts by thirtyfour years.
There will be two performances of Recollections of Signor: An Evening with Mary Watts Thursday 22 November 2012 4pm & 7.30pm £30/£25 for Friends In support of the appeal to save the Watts Studios. Places are very limited. Please book without delay. To book call 01483 813593 Tuesday to Saturday 10am-5pm or visit www.wattsgallery.org.uk 19
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MARY AND GEORGE’S VISION: VICTORIAN PHILANTHROPY TODAY Helen Bowcock, The Hazelhurst Trust
It was only when I read historical accounts of Victorian philanthropy that I began to appreciate some of what has been lost in our culture, in particular the everyday nature of philanthropy in Britain, of associational life as it has been described. And this has taken on a new significance for me because of our involvement as donors to the Watts Gallery, a relationship that I have already found to offer great value and meaning. In finding Watts Gallery I have also found an unexpected frame of reference for philanthropy because after all George Frederic Watts was not only one of the greatest artists of his time, he and his wife Mary were also highly entrepreneurial philanthropists. But in the same way that, by the mid twentieth century, Watts’s work had fallen into obscurity, so too the image of philanthropy had experienced a dramatic decline in popularity and was and is so often dismissed as Victorian ‘dogooderism’. When you consider that by the late nineteenth century you had to be a fairly destitute recipient of charity to be absolved of social obligation to your community it should surely be a source of regret that today philanthropy is so strongly correlated with high net worth. left Mary Watts, Self-portrait Watts Gallery Collection, Compton
At a time when philanthropic motivations are often called into question it is worth reflecting on the boldness and conviction with which Victorians strived for public good. According to historians such as Dr Frank Prochaska there was more connectedness between social classes in the age of Queen Victoria than in post-war Britain. We can see this in the lives of the Wattses when they made a home in the then rural village of Compton in Surrey. I find it remarkable that Mary Watts immediately offered art classes in her home to anyone in the village, going-on to involve 70 members of the village community in the creation of the stunning Watts Memorial Chapel. More remarkable still is the way Mary created the Compton Potters Guild offering apprenticeships to adolescents, providing accommodation, vocational skills and employment to these young men who otherwise may well have ended up in trouble. And after all she understood the problem she was addressing having worked in Whitechapel in the East End of London with boys whom we would describe today as ‘at risk’. The Guild was to all intents and purposes a social enterprise, long before the term had gained the currency that it has today. Again to use modern terminology Mary
had a clear ‘theory of change’; she was convinced that by involving these young men in the creative process of making goods for sale she could form character but also transform lives. In many ways the whole Watts model was a social enterprise. G.F. Watts obtained commissions to paint portraits of the elite in order to fund his own and his wife’s social activism, including the risk capital for the Compton Pottery. Although he did comment at one point that ‘my wife’s very active philanthropy sometimes outruns strict prudence’. I am glad that it did. But here was a self-made man who took it for granted that he should use his talents and resources to provide art for all, making culture accessible to everyone culminating in the opening of the Gallery in 1904. And it is worth pointing out that when the Wattses moved down to Compton this rural area was fast becoming a hub for leading artists, writers, thinkers including Alfred Tennyson and George Bernard Shaw. Land was relatively cheap and philanthropy in its most associational form was at its height. But by the 1970s the Watts Gallery had fallen into total disrepair, a sad shadow of its former self. By then the social and 21
Mary Watts and assistants at work on the interior of the Watts Chapel Watts Gallery archive
economic structure had changed considerably and the dramatic change in cultural beliefs by the post war period questioned the very basis of philanthropy, such that Bevan described it in 1948 as ‘a patchquilt of local paternalism’. This was a time when the dominant view was that only the state could be trusted to be fair, to allocate resources and to address problems of poverty and unemployment. The state also became a great patron of the arts appearing to relieve the wealthy of any great obligation to invest in making art and culture accessible to everyone. And so the roof of the Watts Gallery almost fell in. And right across a county like Surrey we have housing estates built in the spirit of post war optimism on greenfield sites 22
to accommodate families from London but today cut off from the local economy with very high rates of unemployment, lower than average life expectancy and so on. I know this because I decided to write about the need for local giving in what is Britain’s wealthiest county outside of London. And what I stumbled upon was a paradox that wealth in itself had created the need for local philanthropy. As average house prices and incomes in Surrey rose social problems became concentrated in these estates cut off from the rest of the population, wealth disguising poverty., neglected by almost everyone including government. But not totally neglected. I spoke to the leaders of ies and to people who of their own volition had established community groups
to step in. Right across the board these people expressed great indignation that it was all the more difficult for them to fundraise to run programmes and activities because of the illusion that government is the one that provides. And the word that they kept using was unfair, believing that public funding had become politicised. But I think the obsession with funding and with money is not entirely helpful. The greatest shock to me was that in visiting these housing estates that an underlying problem seemed to be total social isolation. So often the one adult in each household had no meaningful relationships with other adults. When we think of associational life at its strongest in working class communities
in the late nineteenth century, should it suggest that it doesn’t have to be this way? Through art people can form social bonds, develop competence they didn’t know they had and see the world in a different way. It is what the Victorians through the Arts and Crafts movement understood so well and it is what many social entrepreneurs understand today. I know that there is a role for philanthropy in addressing the grinding social isolation that can be found in the housing estates I have mentioned. And I have seen a truly remarkable transformation taking place in one of them through the humble initiative taken by a woman who cared sufficiently about the people on the estate not far from here. For a modest amount of core funding she teaches vocational skills but takes every opportunity to involve her predominantly female students in artistic and creative pursuits. This has included a hugely successful flower arranging class given voluntarily by an 89 year old retired florist and now they do flowers for the local church. Is this perhaps what we mean by Big Society? A group from one estate recently visited Watts Gallery for a pottery workshop. I hope they found, as I do, a warm and welcoming place. While I find Watts’s artistic work fascinating, the vast canvasses expressing ideas and values, the Gallery has a greater meaning. Its revitalisation following a major refurbishment is I hope symbolic of a revival of interest in philanthropy. Watts Gallery is also public space, a community hub which has just been commended for its innovation, managing to translate the legacy of the great Victorians into an enterprise
which is highly relevant to the social challenges we face today. In contributing financially to Watts Gallery I believe that we are not only investing in our cultural heritage but also in an organisation that delivers considerable social value, a double return on investment.
their legacy. When I was doing my doctoral thesis my academic supervisor used to say ‘don’t read history backwards’. And I think if we can appreciate the significance of the Wattses within its own context then we can learn lessons from the past and apply them to contemporary philanthropy.
I think that George and Mary Watts would greatly approve of the way a vision for the Gallery is being realised today. They would certainly approve of the value placed upon human relationships and in turn we acknowledge
Mary Watts Mother and Child, terracotta Watts Gallery Collection
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‘DOING TIME’: A LEGACY OF HOPE AT HMP SEND Sally Varah, Chair of The Michael Varah Memorial Fund
Back in January 2012, the new Governor of HM Prison Send in Surrey opened the latest Watts Gallery exhibition Big Issues: Celebrating Art for All, which included art by offenders. Governor Karen Elgar had already visited the Artist in Residence workshop programme within HMP Send – run by Watts Gallery and funded by the Michael Varah Memorial Fund (MVMF) – and seen for herself Mary Seton Watts’ ethos of ‘Art for All’ reborn amongst women within her prison community. But this was her first visit to Watts Gallery itself and, by the time she stood up to speak, the Governor was clearly energised by the inspiring message that pervaded all of the Big Issues exhibits: the transformative ability of creative art to lift the human spirit. “July 2012 is the 50th year of HMP Send giving service as a prison,” she explained, “and tonight I am commissioning your Artist in Residence, Sandy Curry, and the women prisoners who participate in her workshops at Send. I invite them to create a permanent sculpture inside the prison entrance, as a lasting
memorial of this important anniversary. It is my hope that they will involve all the prisoners at Send, and so capture the spirit of Mary Watts and her work with the women of Compton to create the chapel more than a century ago.” Fast forward nine months. On a sunny September morning, 15 prisoners – the ‘Sisters in Art’ who had led the commission project – joined by 20 prison staff, and guests from Watts Gallery and the MVMF, gathered for the unveiling of what Watts Gallery Curator Mark Bills describes as “a very impressive piece of sculpture, with the universal theme of Hope”. The women artists at the centre of this project explained: “The theme we have chosen is ‘Time’ – represented by a sundial. Our inspiration came from talking to the women in Send about their interpretation of time and what it means to them. It can represent a personal experience, a moment, a memory, or whether time was good or bad. On first entering prison, the feelings of frustration, despair, regret and loss can be overwhelming. It is as if we have lost so much; many of us have families who depend on us and
need us. With that comes the realisation that the wrong choices have affected many of us and we are here ‘doing time’.” Artist in Residence Sandy Curry describes the concept of the sundial sculpture, created by the women attending her workshops: “Their message is that the woman standing on the sundial represents all women of our time, yet she is timeless. She is strong enough to break the chain, yet feminine in form. Pointing to the sky she represents the future, they say, holding a broken chain – which shows the breaking of the cycle and the chains that bind us, empowering women to take control of their lives. The woman stands on individual tiles which have been decorated by the community at Send, giving them the opportunity to express and decorate their definition of time on each tile.” The inscription on one of those tiles reads: ‘The locks can be locked but the clock can’t be stopped’. For one young guest, that sentiment was particularly compelling: “Time keeps ticking, time is lost, life goes on. But even when you are in chains, 25
time in not worthless; you can work to enrich that time for when the chains come off – and there are the broken chains on the sculpture just above the tile. Brilliant.”
has helped already to make us feel good about ourselves and to rebuild our self-esteem. It has given us confidence that with hard work ‘look what we can achieve’.”
Speaking at the unveiling, Karen Elgar said: “I gave them a blank canvas – always a bit risky for a prison governor, because there is really no way of knowing what you will get. But today I could not be more proud, particularly because of the way in which the sculpture stands for Hope – the Hope I would want to give women about their own future and breaking the chains of the past.
In essence, the group say that they “feel very privileged and grateful to have been able to represent the women ‘doing time’, with a permanent sculpture that can reflect the thoughts and feelings of those that pass through, along with all the positive achievements gained whilst at Send.” This project has enabled them to reflect that the value of time is precious: that amongst the monotony and the mundane repetitive days, there is time to come to terms with what has passed, to dream for a better future. The present, they say, is their time to plan a positive way forward and to regain their dignity, with renewed hope for the future.
“It couldn’t have happened without the support of Watts Gallery and Sandy Curry, who has helped their vision become a reality. Now the piece is there forever. All the women in the establishment have contributed to it. It has caused some controversy and started conversations. Some staff like it, others have their own opinions! I am really proud that it will stand there forever and of those who have contributed to its creation.” The ‘Sisters in Art’ agree that they have gained so much from this project. “We have learnt new skills in our artistic endeavours and gained a diploma in communication and team building skills in the process. Who would have thought that one Sunday we would set up a workshop in the prison gym and that the other women, staff and even the dogs would come and make a tile (there is even a paw print of a sniffer dog!) In all we made 380 tiles. That day, we all felt the positive atmosphere of people coming together – it gave us the space and freedom 26
to express ourselves. The weeks that followed have felt like a real personal achievement – watching the sculpture grow, all made from recycled stuff collected within the prison.” It has, they say, been inspirational working as a team, encouraging and helping each other, developing mutual understanding, tolerance and trust. And the excitement from other women offenders once the sculpture was completed and in place has been palpable, as they have come to find their own tiles. “We feel it
The last word is with these ‘Sisters in Art’: “You cannot change the past, but you can change the future. You can blossom and grow into a better person. This has become a universal mantra that we tell ourselves and each other.”
The Michael Varah Memorial Fund is proud to collaborate with Watts Gallery and to have provided funding for the Artist in Residence programme at HMP Send since 2009. Christmas cards designed by women at HMP Send are on sale in the Watts Galllery shop in aid of the Michael Varah Memorial Fund.
FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF G.F. WATTS IN FLORENCE Mark Bills, Curator at Watts Gallery When G.F. Watts sought models for his art, he looked not to native genius for inspiration, but towards the Mediterranean, to Greece and Italy, which he believed were ‘the natural home of the arts.’ The light, the climate and landscape, he argued, were the conditions that gave birth to great art. In Italy in particular, he believed that the art of painting had reached its zenith and it was to Italian painters that Watts looked as a model for his own practice. Michelangelo, Raphael, Tinteretto, Veronese and above all Titian were Watts’s ideal. His own paintings constantly looked to their example and even his persona was based on the model of Italian Old Masters. For much of his life G.F. Watts was more familiarly and affectionately known by his pet name ‘Signor’. He came by it after his return from Italy and it clearly grew out of his love for the country and its art. Watts positively encouraged his Italianate image and his wife Mary diligently records his Italian nicknames in her biography of him, George Meredith calling him the ‘Titian of Limnerslease’ and Duff Gordon giving him the affectionate title of ‘Fra Paolo’ after Veronese. Between 1843 and 1847, fresh from winning a prize for his cartoon of Caractacus, Watts lived in Italy under the patronage of Lord and Lady Holland. He was ambitious and aimed to achieve a ‘high’ art that looked to the scale and subject of great Italian
G.F. Watts, Fiesole, 1844-45, Watts Gallery Collection
frescos, the study of which was his primary reason for visiting. Whilst there he painted a fresco at the Villa Medice di Careggi: The Drowning of the Doctor of Lorenzo de’ Medici and other works on an enormous scale. Next year there is an opportunity to explore the ‘beloved Italy’ of G.F. Watts, the inspiration for his art in the glorious setting of Florence and its surroundings, where Watts lived in the 1840s. There will also be an opportunity to see his fresco at the Villa Careggi and the Uffizi which holds his celebrated self-portrait. When questioned by the Minutes of Evidence at the Royal Academy, Watts was asked: ‘You do not consider,’ the study of art in Italy, ‘necessary, but you consider it advantageous?’ ‘Highly advantageous.’ Watts replied.
Follow in the footsteps of G.F. Watts in Florence, in the company of fellow enthusiasts and Watts Gallery Curator Mark Bills, on an all-inclusive private tour 22-25 April 2013. With unique access to parts of the Uffizi Gallery normally closed to the public and bespoke guided tours of sites associated with the Watts, this is a unique opportunity to appreciate the beautiful city which influenced Watts’s work in the 1840s. There are limited spaces remaining. A meeting for anyone interested in the trip will be held at Watts Gallery on Monday 12 November, 5.30-6.30pm. The final deadline for booking is 13 November 2012. Please contact Watts Gallery volunteer Alyson Warner for more information: alyb.cook@gmail.com 27
Watts Gallery is deeply grateful to all its donors. These benefactors have provided particularly generous support:
WATTS MAGAZINE - ISSUE NO. 16 Edited by Andrew Churchill, Marketing Manager, Watts Gallery Position supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Printed by Selsey Press Advertising - 0207 300 5675
COVER Evelyn De Morgan, Aurora Triumphans, 1886 Russell-Cotes Museum & Art Gallery Included in William and Evelyn De Morgan
VISITOR INFORMATION Down Lane, Compton, Surrey GU3 1DQ Tel +44 (0)1483 810 235 info@wattsgallery.org.uk www.wattsgallery.org.uk
OPENING TIMES Monday Closed Tuesday - Saturday 11am - 5pm Sunday 1pm - 5pm Bank Holidays 11am - 5pm Closed 24 - 26 December for Christmas.
EVENTS BOOKING LINE Tuesday - Saturday, 11-5pm 01483 813593 shop@wattsgallery.org.uk
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Heritage Lottery Fund The Deborah Loeb Brice Foundation The Isabel Goldsmith Patiño 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 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 James and Clare Kirkman The Restoration Fund The Wolfson Foundation The Mercers’ Company KPMG Foundation The Pilgrim Trust Miklos and Sally Salamon Surrey Hills LEADER The Anson Charitable Trust The Billmeir Charitable Trust The Hazelhurst Trust The Monument Trust Surrey County Council Man Charitable Trust The Henry Moore Foundation John Lewis OBE Wates Foundation The Michael Marks Charitable Trust The Rothschild Foundation The de Laszlo Foundation Oxford Exhibition Services The Michael Varah Memorial Fund Spencer Wills Trust The Fenton Arts Trust John Beale And all those who wish to remain anonymous
WATTS GALLERY FRIENDS, PATRONS AND VOLUNTEER NEWS WATTS GALLERY VOLUNTEERS RECEIVE QUEEN’S AWARD HM Lord Lieutenant of Surrey Sarah Goad DCVO JP presented the Watts Gallery volunteers with their award on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen on 25 September. Collecting the award for all the volunteers were Jeanne Argent, Sheila Dobson, Ken Miller, Jane Turner and Lis Butcher (left).
PATRONS, THE BIG GIVE AND ADOPT A WATTS An eclectic programme of art visits is on offer for Patrons of Watts Gallery this autumn. On 6 November Patrons are invited to visit the Katrin Bellinger Collection, a fascinating collection of 880 drawings, paintings, prints and photographs. Last month Curator Alison Smith gave Patrons a private breakfast tour of the exhibition Pre-Raphaelite: Victorian Avant-Garde at Tate Britain. To launch The 2012 Big Give campaign, which aims to support our work with disadvantaged and special needs groups, schools, families and lifelong learners, we invite you to enjoy a free tour of the Watts studios and private house on Thursday 6 December from 9.30am. Enjoy art activities, a display of artworks from Watts Gallery learning projects and refreshments. Spaces are limited, please RSVP to Stephanie Dennison.
The 2012 Big Give Christmas Challenge is a chance to have on-line donations to Watts Gallery matched, for every £1 donated to be worth double. Donate 6-8 December from 10am each day. www.wattsgallery.org.uk/biggive For He Had Great Possessions is the latest Watts to be adopted. Under the scheme some 51 paintings and drawings have been sponsored, but there are still dozens more available, from £350 for five years. An Adopt A Watts book is being prepared. If you are interested in the scheme and being included in the book please get in touch. To enquire about the Patrons scheme, reserve a place for the Big Give on 6 December or to learn more about the Adopt a Watts scheme please contact Stephanie Dennison 01483 813581 development@wattsgallery.org.uk
FRIEND’S TRIP TO THE PRE-RAPHAELITE EXHIBITION AT TATE The Friend of Watts Gallery will be visiting the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at Tate Britain on Wednesday 28 November. The aclaimmed exhibition includes a painting by G.F. Watts as well as a number of photographs lent from The Rob Dickins Collection. To book call 01483 813593.
SOLENT SWIM RESULT Thank you to the many supporters of the Watts Solent Swim, which has so far raised £15,000 towards saving the Watts Studios. Perdita Hunt and Helen Bowcock successfully completed the 3-mile crossing to the Isle of Wight on 6 October. Extremely poor weather forced a larger swim team to postpone their original date. The remaining swimmers plan to try again in June 2013. It’s not too late to sponsor: www.justgiving.com/watts-swim 29
ELEANOR FORTESCUE-BRICKDALE: A PRE-RAPHAELITE JOURNEY Mark Bills, Curator of Watts Gallery The Tate has generated a great deal of interest in the Pre-Raphaelite movement with their current exhibition. Yet the influence of Pre-Raphaelitism had a wider inheritance not covered by this exhibition, particularly on a new generation of artists that included Eleanor FortescueBrickdale (1872-1945). Although she was born half a century after the main protagonists of the original movement she was strongly allied to its aesthetic and according to a commentator in 1910 ‘should do much in the future to exemplify the still living force of Pre-Raphaelitism as a school’. Between February and May next year Watts Gallery will be exhibiting works by this important artist whose work arises from the Victorian art tradition. Her delightfully rich design eschewed the modernism of Bloomsbury and instead looked to a Ruskinian depiction of nature allied with strong symbolic and allegorical themes. In the latter she owed a debt to George Frederic Watts who admired her paintings and wrote appreciative remarks in the catalogue for an exhibition of her work at Leighton House. She was born on 25 January 1872 at her parents’ house, Birchamp Villa, Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood, Surrey. At the age of seventeen she joined the Crystal Palace School of Art, but like all art students at that time she aspired to enter the Royal 30
Elaenor Fortescue-Brickdale The Little Foot-page 1905
Academy. She succeeded in doing this on the third attempt and whilst there won a prize for mural decoration. She saw early success as a painter and book illustrator and was associated with her friend and ‘Neo Pre-Raphaelite’ John Byam Shaw (1872-1919), one of the leading figures of this later movement. She also taught at the art school in Kensington that he set up and which bears his name.
of watercolours for her greatest illustrated books, including her celebrated illustrations for Tennyson’s Idylls of the King which were exhibited at London’s Leicester Galleries.
As well as her fine and jewellike paintings which are well represented in the exhibition there are also some examples
A Pre-Raphaelite Journey: Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale 5 February - 9 June 2013 A National Museums Liverpool touring exhibition.
A Pre-Raphaelite Journey, The Art of Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale is curated by the leading scholar of Victorian women artists who has written an excellent catalogue to accompany the show.
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