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diff --git a/13477-0.txt b/13477-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f0059c --- /dev/null +++ b/13477-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1287 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13477 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 13477-h.htm or 13477-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/4/7/13477/13477-h/13477-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/4/7/13477/13477-h.zip) + + + + + +WATTS (1817-1904) + +by + +W. LOFTUS HARE + +Illustrated with Eight Reproductions in Colour + + + + + + + +[Illustration: PLATE I.--DEATH CROWNING INNOCENCE + +(Frontispiece) + + A little child lying in the lap of the winged figure of Death. + Death, ever to Watts a silent angel of pity, "takes charge of + Innocence, placing it beyond the reach of evil." It was first + exhibited at the Winter Exhibition of the New Gallery, 1896, + and was given to the nation in 1897. It is now at the Tate + Gallery.] + + + + +MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR + +EDITED BY T. LEMAN HARE + +"MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR" SERIES + +ARTIST. AUTHOR. +VELAZQUEZ. S.L. BENSUSAN. +REYNOLDS. S.L. BENSUSAN. +TURNER. C. LEWIS HIND. +ROMNEY. C. LEWIS HIND. +GREUZE. ALYS EYRE MACKLIN. +BOTTICELLI. HENRY B. BINNS. +ROSSETTI. LUCIEN PISSARRO. +BELLINI. GEORGE HAY. +FRA ANGELICO. JAMES MASON. +REMBRANDT. JOSEF ISRAELS. +LEIGHTON. A. LYS BALDRY. +RAPHAEL. PAUL G. KONODY. +HOLMAN HUNT. MARY E. COLERIDGE. +TITIAN. S.L. BENSUSAN. +MILLAIS. A. LYS BALDRY. +CARLO DOLCI. GEORGE HAY. +GAINSBOROUGH. MAX ROTHSCHILD. +TINTORETTO. S.L. BENSUSAN. +LUINI. JAMES MASON. +FRANZ HALS. EDGCUMBE STALEY. +VAN DYCK. PERCY M. TURNER. +LEONARDO DA VINCI. M.W. BROCKWELL. +RUBENS. S.L. BENSUSAN. +WHISTLER. T. MARTIN WOOD. +HOLBEIN. S.L. BENSUSAN. +BURNE-JONES. A. LYS BALDRY. +VIGÉE LE BRUN. C. HALDANE MACFALL. +CHARDIN. PAUL G. KONODY. +FRAGONARD. C. HALDANE MACFALL. +MEMLINC. W.H.J. & J.C. WEALE. +CONSTABLE. C. LEWIS HIND. +RAEBURN. JAMES L. CAW. +JOHN S. SARGENT. T. MARTIN WOOD. +LAWRENCE. S.L. BENSUSAN. +DÜRER. H.E.A. FURST. +MILLET. PERCY M. TURNER. +WATTEAU. C. LEWIS HIND. +HOGARTH. C. LEWIS HIND. +MURILLO. S.L. BENSUSAN. +WATTS. W. LOFTUS HARE. +INGRES. A.J. FINBERG. + +Others in Preparation. + +The Publishers have to acknowledge the permission of Mrs. +Watts to reproduce the series of paintings here included. + + + +[Illustration: IN SEMPITERNUM.] + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Plate + +I. Death crowning Innocence Frontispiece + At the Tate Gallery + +II. The Minotaur + At the Tate Gallery + +III. Hope + At the Tate Gallery + +IV. Thomas Carlyle + At the South Kensington Museum + +V. Love and Life + At the Tate Gallery + +VI. Love Triumphant + At the Tate Gallery + +VII. The Good Samaritan + At the Manchester Art Gallery + +VIII. Prayer + At the Manchester Art Gallery + + +[Illustration] + + + + +I + +A BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE + + +In July of 1904 the eighty-seven mortal years of George Frederick Watts +came to an end. He had outlived all the contemporaries and acquaintances +of his youth; few, even among the now living, knew him in his middle +age; while to those of the present generation, who knew little of the +man though much of his work, he appeared as members of the Ionides +family, thus inaugurating the series of private and public portraits for +which he became so famous. The Watts of our day, however, the teacher +first and the painter afterwards, had not yet come on the scene. His +first aspiration towards monumental painting began in the year 1843, +when in a competition for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament he +gained a prize of £300 for his cartoon of "Caractacus led Captive +through the Streets of Rome." At this time, when history was claiming +pictorial art as her servant and expositor, young Watts carried off the +prize against the whole of his competitors. This company included the +well-known historical painter Haydon, who, from a sense of the +impossibility of battling against his financial difficulties, and from +the neglect, real or fancied, of the leading politicians, destroyed +himself by his own hand. + +The £300 took the successful competitor to Italy, where for four years +he remained as a guest of Lord Holland. Glimpses of the Italy he gazed +upon and loved are preserved for us in a landscape of the hillside town +of Fiesole with blue sky and clouds, another of a castellated villa +and mountains near Florence, and a third of the "Carrara Mountains +near Pisa"; while of his portraiture of that day, "Lady Holland" and +"Lady Dorothy Nevill" are relics of the Italian visit. + +[Illustration: PLATE II.--THE MINOTAUR + + In this terrible figure, half man, half bull, gazing over the + sea from the battlement of a hill tower, we see the artist's + representation of the greed and lust associated with modern + civilisations. The picture was exhibited at the Winter + Exhibition of the New Gallery, 1896, and formed part of the + Watts Gift in 1897. It hangs in the Watts Room at the Tate + Gallery.] + +Italy, and particularly Florence, was perpetual fascination and +inspiration to Watts. There he imbibed the influences of Orcagna and +Titian--influences, indeed, which were clearly represented in the next +monumental painting which he attempted. It came about that Lord Holland +persuaded his guest to enter a fresh competition for the decoration of +the Parliament Houses, and Watts carried off the prize with his "Alfred +inciting the Saxons to resist the landing of the Danes." The colour and +movement of the great Italian masters, conspicuously absent from the +"Caractacus" cartoon, were to be seen in this new effort, where, as has +been said, the English king stands like a Raphaelesque archangel in the +midst of the design. + +In 1848 Watts had attained, one might almost say, the position of +official historical painter to the State, a post coveted by the +unfortunate Haydon; and he received a commission to paint a fresco of +"St. George overcomes the Dragon," which was not completed till 1853. +In this year he contributed as an appendix to the Diary of Haydon--in +itself an exciting document, showing how wretched the life of an +official painter then might be--a note telling of the state of +historical and monumental painting in the 'forties, and of his own +attitude towards it; a few of his own words, written before the days of +the "poster," may be usefully quoted here: + + ON THE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OF ARTISTS + + Patriots and statesmen alike forget that the time will come + when the want of great art in England will produce a gap sadly + defacing the beauty of the whole national structure.... + + Working, for example, as an historian to record England's + battles, Haydon would, no doubt, have produced a series of + mighty and instructive pictures.... + + Why should not the Government of a mighty country undertake + the decoration of all the public buildings, such as Town + Halls, National Schools, and even Railway Stations.... + + ... Or considering the walls as slates whereon the school-boy + writes his figures, the great productions of other times might + be reproduced, if but to be rubbed out when fine originals + could be procured; for the expense would very little exceed + that of whitewashing.... + + If, for example, on some convenient wall the whole line of + British sovereigns were painted--were monumental effigies + well and correctly drawn, with date, length of reign, + remarkable events written underneath, these worthy objects + would be attained--intellectual exercise, decoration of space, + and instruction to the public. + +The year 1848 was a critical time for Watts; his first allegorical +picture, "Time and Oblivion," was painted, and, in the year following, +"Life's Illusions" appeared on the walls of the famous Academy which +contained the first works of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Watts was +not of the party, though he might have been had he desired; he preferred +independence. + +Watts' personal life was at this time pervaded by the influence of Lord +and Lady Holland, who, having returned from Florence to London, had him +as a constant visitor to Holland House. In 1850 he went to live at The +Dower House, an old building in the fields of Kensington. There, as a +guest of the Prinsep family, he set up as a portrait painter. His host +and family connections were some of the first to sit for him; and he +soon gained fame in this class of work. + +There was a temporary interruption in 1856, when a journey to the East, +in company with Sir Charles Newton, for the purpose of opening the +buried Temple of Mausolus at Halicarnassus, gave Watts further insight +into the old Greek world; and, one cannot but think, stimulated his +efforts, later so successful, in depicting for us so many incidents in +classical lore. We have, in a view of a mountainous coast called "Asia +Minor," and another, "The Isle of Cos," two charming pictorial records +of this important expedition. The next six years of the artist's life +were spent as a portrait painter; not, indeed, if one may say so, as a +professional who would paint any one's portrait, but as a friend, who +loved to devote himself to his friends. + +In pursuance of his principles touching monumental work, Watts engaged +himself over a period of five years on the greatest and the last of his +civic paintings--namely, the "Justice; a Hemicycle of Lawgivers," to +which I shall later refer. + +Watts was a man who seems to have enjoyed in a singular degree the great +privilege of friendship, which while it has its side of attachment, has +also its side of detachment. Even in his youthful days he never "settled +down," but was a visitor and guest rather than an attached scholar and +student at the schools and studies. It is told of him that when just +about to leave Florence, after a short visit, he casually presented a +letter of introduction to Lord Holland, which immediately led to a four +years' stay there, and this friendship lasted for many years after the +ambassador's return to England. Other groups of friends, represented by +the Ionides, the Prinseps, the Seniors, and the Russell Barringtons, +seemed to have possessed him as their special treasure, in whose +friendship he passed a great part of his life. Two great men, the +titular chiefs of poetry and painting, were much impressed by him, and +drew from him great admiration--Tennyson and Leighton; from the latter +he learned much; in the sphere of music, of which Watts was passionately +fond, there stands out Joachim the violinist. + +Watts used to recall, as the happiest time in his life, his youthful +days as a choral singer; and he always regretted that he had not become +a musician. Besides being fond of singing he declared that he constantly +heard (or felt) mystic music--symphonies, songs, and chorales. Only +once did he receive a _vision_ of a picture--idea, composition and +colours--that was "Time, Death, and Judgment." Music, after all, is +nearer to the soul of the intuitive man than any of the arts, and Watts +felt this deeply. He also had considerable dramatic talent. + +In 1864 some friends found for Watts a bride in the person of Miss Ellen +Terry. The painter and the youthful actress were married in Kensington +in February of that year, and Watts took over Little Holland House. The +marriage, however, was irksome, both to the middle-aged painter and the +vivacious child of sixteen, whose words, taken from her autobiography, +are the best comment we possess on this incident: + + "Many inaccurate stories have been told of my brief married + life, and I have never contradicted them--they were so + manifestly absurd. Those who can imagine the surroundings into + which I, a raw girl, undeveloped in all except my training as + an actress, was thrown, can imagine the situation.... I + wondered at the new life and worshipped it because of its + beauty. When it suddenly came to an end I was thunderstruck; + and refused at first to consent to the separation which was + arranged for me in much the same way as my marriage had + been.... There were no vulgar accusations on either side, and + the words I read in the deed of separation, 'incompatibility + of temper,' more than covered the ground. Truer still would + have been 'incompatibility of _occupation_,' and the + interference of well-meaning friends. + + "'The marriage was not a happy one,' they will probably say + after my death, and I forestall them by saying that it was in + many ways very happy indeed. What bitterness there was effaced + itself in a very remarkable way." (_The Story of My Life_, + 1908.) + +In 1867, at the age of fifty, without his application or knowledge, +Watts was made an Associate, and in the following year a full Member, of +the Royal Academy. Younger men had preceded him in this honour, but +doubtless Watts' modesty and independence secured for him a certain +amount of official neglect. The old studio in Melbury Road, Kensington, +was pulled down in 1868, and a new house was built suited to the painter +who had chosen for himself a hermit life. The house was built in such a +way as would avoid the possibility of entertaining guests, and was +entirely dedicated to work. Watts continued his series of official +portraits, and many of the most beautiful mythical paintings followed +this change. Five years later, Watts was found at Freshwater in the Isle +of Wight, and in 1876 he secured what he had so long needed, the +sympathetic help and co-operation in his personal and artistic aims, in +Mr. and Mrs. Russell Barrington, his neighbours. + +In 1877 Watts decided, in conformity with his views on patriotic art, to +give his pictures to the nation, and there followed shortly after, in +1881 and 1882, exhibitions of his works in Whitechapel and the Grosvenor +Gallery. A leaflet entitled "What should a picture say?" issued with the +approval of Watts, in connection with the Whitechapel Exhibition, has a +characteristic answer to the question put to him. + + "Roughly speaking, a picture must be regarded in the same + light as written words. It must speak to the beholder and tell + him something.... If a picture is a representation only, then + regard it from that point of view only. If it treats of a + historical event, consider whether it fairly tells its tale. + Then there is another class of picture, that whose purpose is + to convey suggestion and idea. You are not to look at that + picture as an actual representation of facts, for it comes + under the same category of dream visions, aspirations, and we + have nothing very distinct except the sentiment. If the + painting is bad--the writing, the language of art, it is a + pity. The picture is then not so good as it should be, but the + thought is there, and the thought is what the artist wanted to + express, and it is or should be impressed on the spectator." + +In 1886 his pictures were exhibited in New York, where they created a +great sensation; but incidents connected with the exhibition, and +criticisms upon it, caused the artist much nervous distress. + +[Illustration: PLATE III.--HOPE + +(At the Tate Gallery) + + At the first glance it is rather strange that such a picture + should bear such a title, but the imagery is perfectly true. + The heavens are illuminated by a solitary star, and Hope bends + her ear to catch the music from the last remaining string of + her almost shattered lyre. The picture was painted in 1885 and + given to the nation in 1897. A very fine duplicate is in the + possession of Mrs. Rushton.] + +It was a peculiar difficulty of his nature which led him to insist, on +the occasions of the London and provincial exhibitions of his pictures, +that the borrowers were to make all arrangements with his frame-maker, +that he should not be called upon to act in any way, and that no +personal reference should be introduced. Watts always considered himself +a private person; he disliked public functions and fled from them if +there were any attempt to draw attention to him. His habits of work were +consistent with these unusual traits. At sunrise he was at his easel. +During the hot months of summer he was hard at work in his London +studio, leaving for the country only for a few weeks during foggy +weather. + +At the age of sixty-nine Watts married Miss Mary Fraser-Tytler, with +whom he journeyed to Egypt, painting there a study of the "Sphinx," one +of the cleverest of his landscapes. Three years after his return, he +settled at Limnerslease, Compton, in Surrey, where he took great +interest in the attempt to revive industrial art among the rural +population. + +Twice, in 1885 and 1894, the artist refused, for private reasons, the +baronetcy that other artists had accepted. He lived henceforth and died +the untitled patriot and artist, George Frederick Watts. + + + + +II + +THE MAN AND THE MESSENGER + + +Having given in the preceding pages the briefest possible outline of the +life of Watts as a man amongst men, we are now able to come to closer +quarters. He was essentially a messenger--a teacher, delivering to the +world, in such a manner that his genius and temperament made possible, +ideas which had found their place in his mind. He would have been the +first to admit that without these ideas he would be less than nothing. + +If it were possible to bring together all the external acts of the +painter's life, his journeyings to and fro, his making and his losing +friends, we should have insufficient data to enable us to understand +Watts' message; his great ambitions, his constant failures, his intimate +experiences, his reflections and determinations--known to none but +himself--surely these, the internal life of Watts, are the real sources +of his message? True, he was in the midst of the nineteenth century, +breathing its atmosphere, familiar with the ideals of its great men, +doubting, questioning, and hoping with the rest. To him, as to many a +contemporary stoic, the world was in a certain sense an alien ground, +and mortal life was to be stoically endured and made the best of. It is +impossible to believe, however, that this inspiring and prophetic +painter reproduced and handed on merely that which his time and society +gave him. His day and his associates truly gave him much; the past and +his heredity made their contributions; but we must believe that the +purest gold was fired in the crucible of his inner experience, his joys +and his sufferings. In him was accomplished that great discovery which +the philosophers have called Pessimism; he not only saw in other men (as +depicted in his memorable canvas of 1849), but he experienced in himself +the transitory life's illusions. To Watts, the serious man of fifty +years, Love and Death, Faith and Hope, Aspiration, Suffering, and +Remorse, were not, as to the eighteenth-century rhymester, merely Greek +ladies draped in flowing raiment; to him they were realities, intensely +focussed in himself. Watts was giving of himself, of his knowledge and +observation of what Love is and does, and how Death appears so +variously; and who but a man who knew the melancholy of despair could +paint that picture "Hope"? + +Immediately after the central crisis of his personal life appeared the +canvas entitled "Fata Morgana," illustrative of a knight in vain pursuit +of a phantom maiden; and before long there was from his brush the +pictured story of a lost love, "Orpheus and Eurydice," one of the +saddest of all myths, but, one feels, no old myth to him. + +By a more careful analysis of the artist's work we hope to learn the +teaching Watts set himself to give, and to ascertain the means that he +adopted; but one point needs to be made clear at this stage, namely, +that although Watts was a great teacher, yet he was not a revolutionary. +The ideals he held up were not new or strange, but old, well-tried, one +might almost say conventional. They represent the ideals which, in the +friction and turmoil of ages, have emerged as definite, clear, final. +They are not disputed or dubious notions, but accepted truisms forgotten +and neglected, waiting for the day when men shall live by them. + +Furthermore, Watts was not in any sense a mystic--neither personally or +as an artist. "The Dweller in the Innermost" is not the transcendental +self known to a few rare souls, but is merely conscience, known to all. +The biblical paintings have no secret meaning assigned to them. The +inhabitants of Eden, the hero of the Deluge, the Hebrew patriarchs, +Samson and Satan--all these are the familiar figures of the +evangelical's Bible. "Eve Repentant" is the woman Eve, the mother of the +race; "Jacob and Esau" are the brothers come to reconciliation; "Jonah" +is the prophet denouncing the Nineveh of his day and the Babylon of +this. The teaching--and there is teaching in every one of them--is plain +and ethical. So also, with the Greek myths; they teach plainly--they +hold no esoteric interpretations. Watts is no Neo-Platonist weaving +mystical doctrines from the ancient hero tales; he is rather a stoic, a +moralist, a teacher of earthly things. + +But we must be careful to guard against the impression of Watts as a +lofty philosopher consciously issuing proclamations by means of his art. +Really he was not aware of being a philosopher at all; he was simply an +artist, an exquisitely delicate and sensitive medium, who, when once +before his canvas, suddenly filled with his idea, was compelled to say +his word. If there be any synthesis about his finished work--and no one +can deny this--it was not because Watts gave days and nights and years +to "thinking things out." His paintings are, as he used to call them, +"anthems," brought forth by the intuitive man, the musician. This was +the fundamental Watts. Whatever unity there be, is due rather to unity +of inspiration than to strength or definiteness of character and +accomplishment, and this was sometimes referred to by Watts as a golden +thread passing through his life--a thread of good intention--which he +felt would guide him through the labyrinth of distractions, mistakes, +irritations, ill health, and failures. + +One of the striking incidents in the life of Watts was his offer to +decorate Euston Railway Station with frescoes entitled "The Progress of +Cosmos." "Chaos" we have in the Tate Gallery, full of suggestiveness and +interest. We see a deep blue sky above the distant mountains, gloriously +calm and everlasting; in the middle distance to the left is a nebulous +haze of light, while in the foreground the rocks are bursting open and +the flames rush through. Figures of men, possessed by the energy and +agony of creation, are seen wrestling with the elements of fire and +earth. One of these figures, having done his work, floats away from the +glow of the fire across the transparent water, while others of his +creative family have quite passed the struggling stage of movement and +are reclining permanent and gigantic to the right of the picture. The +same idea is repeated in the chain of draped women who are emerging from +the watery deep; at first they are swept along in isolation, then they +fly in closer company, next they dance and finally walk in orderly +procession. But Chaos, for all this, is a unity; of all material forms +it is the most ancient form; Cosmos however is the long-drawn tale +beginning with the day when "The Spirit of God brooded on the face of +the waters." Cosmos might have been Watts' synthetic pictorial +philosophy; Herbert Spencer with his pen, and he with his brush, as it +were, should labour side by side. But this was not to be; the Directors +of the North-Western Railway declined the artist's generous offer, and +he had to get his "Cosmos" painted by degrees. On the whole, perhaps, we +should be thankful that the railway company liberated Watts from this +self-imposed task. We remember that Dante in his exile set out to write +"Il Convivio," a Banquet of so many courses that one might tremble at +the prospect of sitting down to it; the four treatises we have are +interesting, though dry as dust; but if Dante had finished his Banquet, +he might never have had time for his "Divine Comedy"; so perhaps, after +all, we shall be well content to be without Watts' "Cosmos," remembering +what we have gained thereby. Besides, the continuous and spontaneous +self-revelation of an artist or a poet is sometimes truer than a rigid +predetermined plan. + +[Illustration: PLATE IV.--THOMAS CARLYLE + +(At the South Kensington Museum) + + This canvas was painted in 1868, and is the earlier of the two + portraits of the famous historian painted by Watts. It formed + part of the Foster Bequest. It is interesting to compare this + with the painting in the National Portrait Gallery.] + +A few words from the pen of the artist, appearing by way of preface to a +book, "A Plain Handicraft," may here be quoted to indicate the strong +views Watts took on the "Condition-of-England Question." His interest in +art was not centred in painting, or sculpture, or himself, or his fellow +artists. He believed in the sacred mission of art as applied to profane +things. We see how closely he adheres to the point of view made so +famous by Ruskin. Both Watts and Ruskin, one feels, belong rather to the +days of Pericles, when everything was best in the state because the +citizens gave themselves up to it and to each other. Writing of the +necessity and utility of reviving Plain Handicrafts among the mass of +the people, the painter of "Mammon" says: + + "... When the object is to vitalise and develop faculties--the + especial inheritance of the human race, but strangely dormant + in our time among the largest section of the community--the + claim becomes one that cannot be ignored. Looking at the + subject from a point of view commanding a wide horizon, it + seems to be nothing less than a social demand, rising into a + religious duty, to make every endeavour in the direction of + supplying all possible compensating consolation for the + routine of daily work, become so mechanical and dreary. When + home is without charm, and country without attaching bonds, + the existence of a nation is rudely shaken; dull discontent + leading to sullen discontent, may readily become active + animosity. There will not be men interested in the maintenance + of law and order, who feel that law and order bring them no + perceptible formal advantage. In the race for wealth, it has + been forgotten that wealth alone can offer neither dignity nor + permanent safety; no dignity, if the man of the population is + degraded by dull toil and disgraceful competition; no safety, + if large numbers drag on a discontented existence, while the + more active and intelligent leave our shores. + + "Whether or not our material wealth is to be increased or + diminished, it is certain that a more general well-being and + contentment must be striven for. A happy nation will be a + wealthy nation, wealthy in the best sense, in the assurance + that its children can be depended upon in case of need, wealth + above the fortune of war, and safety above the reach of + fortune. The rush of interest in the direction of what are + understood as worldly advantages, has trampled out the sense + of pleasure in the beautiful, and the need of its presence as + an element essential to the satisfaction of daily life, which + must have been unconsciously felt in ages less absorbed in + acquiring wealth for itself alone. In olden times our art + congresses would have been as needless as congresses to + impress on the general mind the advantages of money-making + would be in these." (_Plain Handicraft_, 1892.) + +In G.F. Watts, however, we have an instance of a man who, although he +sees and is attracted by abstract principles of ethics, does not +perceive the manner of their final application; he is not really +scientific. It might be thought that the painter of "Greed and Toil," +"The Sempstress," "Mammon," "The Dweller of the Innermost," and "Love +Triumphant," would be able to indicate, in that sphere of social +activity called "practical politics," how these principles could find +their expression and realisation. It is interesting, however, to know, +and to have it authoritatively from his own pen, that Watts at least +could not discern either the time or the application of these ethical +principles to the affairs of the great world; for in 1901 there appeared +from his hand a quasi-philosophical defence of the South African War, +entitled "Our Race as Pioneers." He said: + + "Inevitable social and political measures claim obedience, + which may be at variance with the spiritual and ethical + conscience; but there comes in the question of necessity, + apparent laws that contest with pure right and wrong; ... and + as we must live, nothing remains but commerce; and commerce + cannot be carried on without competition, and pushing the + limits of our interests. The result of competition can only be + conflict--war, unless some other outlet can be found. Commerce + will not supply this; its very activity, which is its health + and life, will produce the ambition, envy, and jarring + interests that will be fatal to peace.... The principle, + _Movement_, must have its outlet, its safety valve. This has + always been war.... The goddess Trade, the modern Pandora, has + in her box all the evils that afflict mankind.... How can + Commerce, as understood by the principles of trade, abolish + war?" + + "The simple principles of right and wrong are easily + defined," and perhaps easily painted; "but the complexity of + human affairs and legitimate interests, conducing to the + activity demanded by the great law, _Movement_, makes some + elasticity necessary, even where there is the most honest + desire to be just." + +Thus, from his own words, we see how the painter transcends the +politician; he is a stimulator, he gives hints, not instructions; he is +commanding, imperative, but he does not show how, nor stay to devise +ways and means. He even perceives, as he thinks, that though the +commands of his pictures, "Faith," "Conscience," and "Love Triumphant," +be given, yet they cannot be obeyed fully because of "Evolution" and +"Destiny," or as he calls it "Movement." + +To his intimate friends Watts, who was so introspective, often +complained of "the duality of my nature." In the midst of affairs, +financial or worldly, on questions of criticism, personal conduct and +the like, the great artist was variable and uncertain. Though humble and +self-deprecatory to an extreme degree, he made mistakes from which he +could escape only with great difficulty; and he suffered much from +depression and melancholy. This man, however, never appears in the +pictures; when once in his studio, alone facing his canvas, Watts is +final, absolute, an undisturbed and undistracted unity, conscious of +that overwhelming "rightness" known to a Hebrew prophet. Whatever Time +or Death may have in store for him or any man, there riding swiftly +above them is Judgment the Absolute One; whatever theories may be spun +from the perplexed mind of the magazine writer about Expansion and +Necessity, there sits the terrible "Mammon" pilloried for all time. +Indeed, he said his pictures were "for all time"; they were from the +mind and hand of the seer, who, rising from his personality, transcended +it; and as the personality of dual nature gradually fades away into the +forgotten past, the Messenger emerges ever more and more clearly, +leaving his graphic testimonies spread out upon a hundred canvases. It +might be said as a final estimate that the value and sincerity of Watts' +work becomes intensified a hundred-fold when we remember that its +grandeur and dignity, its unity and its calm, was the work of a man who +seldom, if ever, attained internal peace. Like some who speak wiser than +they know, so Watts gave himself as an instrument to inspirations of +which he was not able, through adverse circumstances, to make full use. +Thus was the Man divided from the Messenger. + +[Illustration: PLATE V.--LOVE AND LIFE + +(At the Tate Gallery) + + Love, strong in his immortal youth, leads Life, a slight + female figure, along the steep uphill path; with his broad + wings he shelters her, that the winds of heaven may not visit + her too roughly. Violets spring where Love has trod, and as + they ascend to the mountain top the air becomes more and more + golden. The implication is that, without the aid of Divine + Love, fragile Human Life could not have power to ascend the + steep path upward. First exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in + 1885. Companion picture to "Love and Death," and "Love + Triumphant."] + + + + +III + +A REVIEW OF WATTS' WORK + + +Failing the "Progress of the Cosmos," we have from the mind and brush of +Watts a great number of paintings, which may be grouped according to +their character. Such divisions must not be regarded as rigid or +official, for often enough a picture may belong to several groups at the +same time. For the purpose of our survey, however, we divide them as +follows: + + 1. Monumental or Historical Paintings and Frescoes. + 2. Humanitarian or Social Paintings. + 3. Portraits, private and public. + 4. Biblical Paintings. + 5. Mythical Paintings. + 6. "Pessimistic" Paintings. + 7. The Great Realities. + 8. The Love Series. + 9. The Death Series. + 10. Landscapes. + 11. Unclassified Paintings. + 12. Paintings of Warriors. + +"Caractacus" was the first of the monumental paintings; by them Watts +appears as a citizen and a patriot, whose insular enthusiasm extends +backward to the time when the British chief Caractacus fought and was +subdued by the Romans. He enters also into the spirit of the resistance +offered to the Danes by King Alfred. George and the Dragon are included +by him in the historical though mythical events of our race. Undoubtedly +the most remarkable of Watts' monumental paintings is the fresco +entitled "Justice; a Hemicycle of Lawgivers," painted for the Benchers' +Hall in Lincoln's Inn. It is 45 x 40 feet. Here Watts, taking the +conventional and theoretical attitude, identifies law-making with +justice, and in his fresco we see thirty-three figures, representing +Moses, Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Confucius, Lycurgus and his fellow-Greeks, +Numa Pompilius and other Romans. Here figures also Justinian, the maker +of the great Code; Mahomet, King Alfred, and even Attila the Hun. The +painting represents the close of this phase of Watts' work; he received +a gift of £500 and a gold cup in memory of its achievement. In England, +at least, no one has ever attempted or accomplished anything in fresco +of so great dimensions. Watts' monumental genius drove him to sculpture +on the grand scale also. "Hugh Lupus" for the Duke of Westminster, and +"Physical Energy," upon which he laboured at intervals during +twenty-five years of his life, are his great triumphs in this direction. +It is not the first time that an artist deficient in health and strength +has made physical energy into a demigod. Men often, perhaps always, +idealise what they have not. It was the wish of the sculptor to place a +cast of "Physical Energy" on the grave of Cecil Rhodes on the Matoppo +Hills in South Africa, indicating how Watts found it possible (by +idealising what he wished to idealise), to include within the scope and +patronage of his art, the activities, aims, and interests of modern +Colonial Enterprise. + +_Humanitarian Paintings_.--The earliest of these, "The Wounded Heron," +asks our pity for the injured bird, and forbids us to join in the +enthusiasm of the huntsman who hurries for his suffering prize. The same +thought is expressed in the beautiful "Shuddering Angel," who is +covering his face with his hands at the sight of the mangled plumage +scattered on the altar of fashion. In the large canvases, "A Patient +Life of Unrequited Toil," and "Midday Rest," we have paintings of +horses, both of them designed to teach us consideration for the "friend +of man." "The Sempstress" sings us Tom Hood's "Song of the Shirt." + +"The Good Samaritan" (see Plate VII.) properly belongs to this series. +It was presented by the artist to the citizens of Manchester, as an +expression of his admiration of Thomas Wright, the prison +philanthropist, whose work was at that time (1852) creating a sensation +in the north of England. If we compare this painting with other Biblical +subjects executed at a later date, we see how much Watts' work has +gained since then. The almost smooth texture and the dark shadows of the +Manchester picture have given way to ruggedness and transparency. Still, +"The Good Samaritan" is simple and excellent in purpose and composition. + +A little known painting entitled "Cruel Vengeance," seems to be a +forecast of "Mammon"; a creature with human form and vulture's head +presses under his hand a figure like the maiden whose head rests on +Mammon's knee. In "Greed and Labour" the seer's eye pierces through the +relations between the worker and his master; Labour is a fine strong +figure loaded with the implements of his toil, with no feeling of +subjection in his manly face; on the other hand, the miser creeping +behind him, clutching the money bags, represents that Greed who, as +Mammon, is seen sitting on his throne of death. "Mammon" is, however, +the greatest of the three, containing in itself the ideas and forms of +the other two. It is a terrible picture of the god to whom many bow the +knee--"dedicated to his worshippers." His leaden face shows a +consciousness of power, but not happiness arising from power; his dull +eyes see nothing, though his mind's eye sees one thing clearly--the +money bags on his lap. The two frail creatures of youth and maiden, +"types of humanity" as Watts said, are crushed by his heavy limbs, while +behind a fire burns continuously, perhaps also within his massive +breast. + +_Portraits_.--In portraiture, as in other forms of art, Watts had +distinct and peculiar views. He gradually came to the opinion, which he +adopted as his first rule in portraiture, that it was his duty, not +merely to copy the external features of the sitter, but to give what +might be called an intellectual copy. He declared it to be possible and +necessary for the sitter and painter to attain a unity of feeling and a +sympathy, by which he (the painter) was inspired. Watts' earlier +portraits, while being far from characterless, are not instances of the +application of this principle. There is in them a slight tendency to +eighteenth-century ideal portraiture, which so often took the sitter +(and the observer too) back to times and attitudes, backgrounds and +thunderstorms, that never were and never will be. + +Watts, however, was slightly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite school. He +might, had he wished, have been their portrait painter--and indeed, the +picture of the comely Mrs. Hughes, a kind, motherly creature, with a +background of distant fields, minutely painted, is quite on the lines of +Pre-Raphaelite realism. + +[Illustration: PLATE VI.--LOVE TRIUMPHANT + +(At the Tate Gallery) + + Time and Death having travelled together through the ages, + have run their course and are at length overthrown. Love alone + arises on immortal wings, triumphantly, with outspread arms to + the eternal skies. + + Given to the nation in 1900.] + +Somewhat of the same character is the portrait of Mrs. Nassau Senior, +who, with one knee on a sofa, is shown tending flowers, her rippling +golden hair falling over her shoulders. A full-length portrait of Miss +Mary Kirkpatrick Brunton, dated 1842, also belongs to the old style. +Watts had a passion for human loveliness, and in his day some of the +great beauties sat to him. The "Jersey Lily" (Mrs. Langtry) with her +simple headdress and downcast eye, appeared at the Academy of 1879. +"Miss Rachel Gurney" is a wonderful portrait of a flaming soul +imprisoned in a graceful form and graceless dress. Miss Gurney is shown +standing, turning slightly to the right with the head again turned over +the right shoulder, while the whole effect of energy seems to be +concentrated in the flashing eyes. Watts was able to interpret equally +well personalities of a very different character, and perhaps the canvas +representing Miss Edith Villiers is one of the most successful of his +spiritual portraits. Miss Dorothy Dene, whose complexion Watts was one +of the first to transfer to canvas, Miss Mary Anderson, and Miss Dorothy +Maccallum, were all triumphantly depicted. He will be known, however, as +the citizen portrait-painter of the nineteenth century, who preserved +for us not merely the form, but the spirit of some of the greatest men +of his day. Lord Tennyson sat three times. In 1859 the poet was shown in +the prime of life, his hair and beard ruffled, his look determined. In +1864 we had another canvas--"the moonlight portrait"; the face is +that of Merlin, meditative, thoughtful. As you look at it the features +stand out with great clearness, the distance of the laurels behind his +head can be estimated almost precisely, while seen through them is the +gleam of the moon upon the distant water. The 1890 portrait, in +scholastic robes, with grizzled beard, and hair diminished, is Tennyson +the mystic, and reminds us of his "Ancient Sage"-- + + "... for more than once when I + Sat all alone, revolving in myself + The word that is the symbol of myself, + The Mortal limit of the self was loosed + And passed into the Nameless, as a cloud + Melts into heaven." + +The portrait of John L. Motley, the American Minister to England in +1869, and author of "The Rise of the Dutch Republic," is one of the most +successful paintings of handsome men; Watts here depicts perfectly the +"spiritual body" of strength, purity, and appeal; the eyes are deepest +blue, and the hair the richest brown. In this case the artist has, as he +was so prone, fallen into symbolism even in portraiture, for we can +trace in the background a faint picture of an old-time fighting ship. + +Another classic portrait, so different to that by Whistler, is of Thomas +Carlyle. The sage of Chelsea sits ruffled and untidy, with his hands +resting on the head of a stick, and his features full of power. He seems +protesting against the few hours' idleness, and anxious to get back to +the strenuous life. The sitter was good enough to say that the portrait +was of "a mad labourer"--not an unfair criticism of a very good +portrait. + +_The Biblical Paintings_ are, as before said, in partial fulfilment of +the frustrated scheme of "Cosmos." "Eve Repentant," in an attitude so +typical of grief, is perhaps the most beautiful; it is one of a trilogy, +the others being "She shall be called Woman," and "Eve Tempted." It is +singular that in these three canvases the painter avoids the attempt to +draw the face of the mother of the race. In the first the face is +upturned, covered in shadow; in the second it is hid from view by the +leaves of the forbidden tree, while in the third Eve turns her back and +hides her weeping face with her arms. This habit of Watts to obscure the +face is observed in "The Shuddering Angel," Judgment in "Time, Death, +and Judgment," in "Love and Death," "Sic Transit," "Great Possessions," +and some others. Often indeed a picture speaks as much of what is not +seen as of what is seen. + +Incidents from the Gospels are represented by "The Prodigal," where the +outcast is seen crouching on the ground, his face fixed on vacuity, +almost in the act of coming to himself. "For he had Great Possessions," +is, however, the greatest and simplest of all. There the young man who +went away sorrowful with bowed head, scarcely knowing what he has lost, +is used by Watts as one of his most powerful criticisms of modern life. +Although the incident is a definite isolated one, yet the costume, +figure, chain of office, and jewelled fingers, clutching and releasing, +are of no time or land in particular. + +It is not a little remarkable that Watts, who had breathed so deeply the +air of Italy, and had almost lived in company of Titian and Raphael, +should never have attempted the figure of Christ or His apostles. This +was, however, not without reason. His pictures were not only "for all +time," but apart from time altogether. His only specific reference to +Christianity is his beautiful canvas, "The Spirit of Christianity," in +which he rebuked the Churches for their dissensions. A parental figure +floats upon a cloud while four children nestle at her feet. The earth +below is shrouded in darkness and gloom, despite the steeple tower +raising its head above a distant village. The rebuke was immediately +stimulated by the refusal of a certain church to employ Watts when the +officials found he was not of their faith. In this picture Watts +approached nearest to the Italian Madonnas both in form and colour. + +_The Mythical Paintings_ are, in the main, earlier than the Biblical +series, but even here the same note of teaching is struck, and our human +sympathies are drawn out towards the figure depicted. In one, "Echo" +comes to find her lover transformed into a flower; in another, "Psyche," +through disobedience, has lost her love. She gazes regretfully at a +feather fallen from Cupid's wing; it is a pink feather, such as might be +taken from the plumage of the little Lord of Love who vainly opposes +Death in his approach to the beloved one. In "Psyche," Watts has made +the pale body expressive of abject loss; there is no physical effort, +except in the well-expanded feet, and no other thought but lost love. + +The legend of "Diana and Endymion" was painted three times--"good, +better, best." A shepherd loved the Moon, who in his sleep descends from +heaven to embrace him. The canvas of 1903 must be regarded as the final +success--the sleeping figure is more asleep, his vision more dreamlike +and diaphanous. "Orpheus and Eurydice" (painted three times) is perhaps +the greatest of his classical pictures. It is one of the few +compositions that were considered by its author as "finished." Here +again the lover through disobedience loses his love; the falling figure +of Eurydice is one of the most beautiful and realistic of all the series +of Watts' nudes, and the agony of loss, the energy of struggle, are +magnificently drawn in the figure of Orpheus. Looking at the canvas, one +recalls the lines of the old Platonic poet-philosopher Boëthius: + + "At length the shadowy king, + His sorrows pitying, + 'He hath prevailed!' cried; + 'We give him back his bride! + To him she shall belong, + As guerdon of his song. + One sole condition yet + Upon the boon is set; + Let him not turn his eyes + To view his hard-won prize, + Till they securely pass + The gates of Hell.' Alas! + What law can lovers move? + A higher law is love! + For Orpheus--woe is me!-- + On his Eurydice-- + Day's threshold all but won-- + Looked, lost, and was undone!" + +In "The Minotaur," that terrible creature, half man, half bull, crushing +with his hideous claw the body of a bird, stands ever waiting to consume +by his cruel lust the convoy of beauteous forms coming unseen and +unwilling over the sea to him. It is an old myth, but Watts intended it +for a modern message. The picture was painted by him in the heat of +indignation in three hours. + +A small but very important group of paintings, which I call "The +Pessimistic Series," begins with "Life's Illusions," painted in 1849. +"It is," says Watts, "an allegorical design typifying the march of human +life." Fair visions of Beauty, the abstract embodiments of divers forms +of Hope and Ambition, hover high in the air above the gulf which stands +as the goal of all men's lives. At their feet lie the shattered symbols +of human greatness and power, and upon the narrow space of earth that +overhangs the deep abyss are figured the brighter forms of illusions +that endure through every changing fashion of the world. A knight in +armour pricks on his horse in quick pursuit of the rainbow-tinted bubble +of glory; on his right are two lovers; on his left an aged student still +pores over his work by the last rays of the dying sun; while in the +shadow of the group may be seen the form of a little child chasing a +butterfly. + +This picture has the merit, along with "Fata Morgana," of combining the +teaching element with one of the finest representations of woman's form +that came from Watts' brush. He was one of those who vigorously defended +the painting of the nude. These are some of his words: + + "One of the great missions of art--the greatest indeed--is to + serve the same grand and noble end as poetry by holding in + check that natural and ever-increasing tendency to hypocrisy + which is consequent upon and constantly nurtured by + civilisation. My aim is now, and will be to the end, not so + much to paint pictures which are delightful to the eye, but + pictures which will go to the intelligence and the + imagination, and kindle there what is good and noble, and + which will appeal to the heart. And in doing this I am forced + to paint the nude." + +"Fata Morgana" is a picture of Fortune or Opportunity pursued and lost +by an ardent horseman. It was painted twice, first in the Italian style, +and again in what must be called Watts' own style--much the finer +effort. This picture shows us what, in the artist's view, man in this +mortal life desires, pursues, and mostly loses. Fortune has a lock of +hair on her forehead by which alone she may be captured, and as she +glides mockingly along, she leads her pursuers across rock, stream, +dale, desert, and meadow typical of life. The pursuit of the elusive is +a favourite theme with Watts, and is set forth by the picture +"Mischief." Here a fine young man is battling for his liberty against an +airy spirit representing Folly or Mischief. Humanity bends his neck +beneath the enchanter's yoke--a wreath of flowers thrown round his +neck--and is led an unwilling captive; as he follows the roses turn to +briars about his muscular limbs, and at every step the tangle becomes +denser, while one by one the arrows drop from his hand. The thought of +"Life's Illusions" and "Fata Morgana" is again set forth in "Sic Transit +Gloria Mundi," where we see the body of a king whose crown, and all that +represents to him the glory of the world, is left at death. It is not, +however, in Watts' conception essential glory that passes away, but the +_Glory of the World_. Upon the dark curtain that hangs behind the +shrouded figure are words that represent his final wisdom, "What I +spent, I had; what I saved, I lost; what I gave, I have." + +[Illustration: PLATE VII.--THE GOOD SAMARITAN + +(At the Manchester Art Gallery) + + This is an early picture, painted in the year 1852 and + presented to the city of Manchester by the artist in honour of + the prison philanthropist, a native of that city.] + +These I call "Pessimistic paintings," because they represent the true +discovery ever waiting to be made by man, that the sum total of all that +can be gained in man's external life--wealth, fame, strength, and +power--that these inevitably pass from him. To know this, to see it +clearly, to accept it, is the happiness of the pessimist, who +thenceforward fixes his hope and bends his energies to the realisation +of other and higher goods. In this he becomes an optimist, for this is +the pursuit, as Watts never ceases to teach, in which man can and does +attain his goal. Thus our prophet-painter, having seen and known and +felt all this, having tested it in the personal and intimate life, +brings to a triumphant close his great series, where positive rather +than negative teaching is given. + +_The Great Realities_.--We have seen in "Chaos" primordial matter; we +have now from Watts' brush the origin of things on the metaphysical +side. In "The All-pervading," there sits the Spirit of the Universe, +holding in her lap the globe of the systems, the representation of the +last conclusions of philosophy. This mysterious picture is very low in +tone, conforming to Watts' rule to make the colouring suit the subject. +Here there is nothing hard or defined; the spirit of the universe is +merely suggested or hinted at, his great wings enclose all. The +elliptical form of this composition is seen again in "Death Crowning +Innocence" and "The Dweller in the Innermost," and the same expressive +indefiniteness and lowness of the colour tones. In the latter effort we +have the figure of Conscience, winged, dumb-faced and pensive, seated +within a glow of light. On her forehead is the shining star, and in her +lap the arrows which pierce through all disguises, and a trumpet that +proclaims peace to the world. Here, therefore, is the greatest reality +from the psychological side. We have also cosmical paintings +representing "Evolution," "Progress," the "Slumber of the Ages," and +"Destiny," all of them asking and answering; not indeed finally and +dogmatically, but as Watts desired that his pictures should do, +stimulating in the observer both the asking and the answering faculty. +In "Faith" we have a companion to "Hope." Wearied and saddened by +persecutions, she washes her blood-stained feet in a running stream, and +recognising the influence of Love in all the beauty of Nature, she feels +that the sword is not the best argument, and takes it off. The colouring +of this picture is rich and forcible, the maroon robe of the figure +being one of Watts' favourite attempts. + +A satisfying picture of a little child emerging from the latest wave on +the shore of humanity's ocean, asks the question, _Whence and Whither_. +I reserve for "Hope" the final word (see Plate III.). If, as I said, the +optimism which is spiritual and ideal springs from the pessimism which +is material and actual, so too does Hope grow from the bosom of +Despair. This the picture shows. Crouching on the sphere of the world +sits the blindfold figure of a woman, bending her ear to catch the music +of one only string preserved on her lyre. When everything has failed, +there is Hope; and Hope looks, in Watts' teaching, for that which cannot +fail, but which is ever triumphant, namely, Love. + +_The Love Series_.--According to Watts, Love steers the boat of +humanity, who is seen in one of his canvases tossed about and almost +shipwrecked. Love does not do this easily, but he does it. Love, as a +winged youth, also guides Life, a fragile maiden, up the rocky +steep--Life, that would else fail and fall. Violets spring where Love +has trod, and as they ascend to the mountain top the air becomes more +golden. This picture, "Love and Life" (see Plate V.) was painted four +times. "Love and Death," painted three times, represents the +irresistible figure of Death tenderly, yet firmly, entering a door where +we know lies the beloved one. This is an eternal theme, suggested, I +believe, by a temporal incident--the death of a young member of the +Prinsep family. Love vainly pushes back the imperious figure; the +protecting flowers are trodden down and the dove mourns; and with it all +we feel that though Love fears Death, yet Death respects Love. Just as +"Love and Death" are companion pictures and tell complementary truths, +so "Time, Death, and Judgment" is related to "Love Triumphant" (see +Plate VI.). In the one we see Time, represented by a mighty youth half +clad in a red cloak, striding along with great vigour. His companion, +whom he holds by the hand, is Death, the sad mother with weary, downcast +eye and outspread lap ready to receive her load; but with neither of +them is the final word, for Judgment, poised in the clouds, wields his +fiery sword of eternal law and holds the balance before his hidden face. +In "Love Triumphant" Love takes the place of, and transcends Judgment. +Time and Death having travelled together through the ages, are in the +end overthrown, and Love alone rises on immortal wings. Thus the stoical +painter reaches his greatest height--tells his best truth. + +_The Death Series_.--As may be expected, Death has no terrors for the +fundamental Watts. Never once does Death look with hollow eyes and +sunken cheeks, or grasp with bony fingers at the living. In "Death +Crowning Innocence," as a mother she puts her halo on the infant +Innocence, whom she claims. Death holds a Court to which all must +go--priest, soldier, king, cripple, beautiful woman, and young child. +The lion must die, the civilisation be overthrown, wealth, fame, and +pride must be let go--so Watts shows in his "Court of Death"; all come +to the end of the book marked _Finis_. Death is calm and majestic, with +angel wings, and overhead are the figures of Silence and Mystery, +guarding, but partially revealing what is beyond the veil--sunrise and +the star of hope; while even in the lap of Death nestles a new-born +babe--the soul passing into new realms through the gates of Death. + +Again, Death is _the Messenger_ who comes, not to terrify, but as an +ambassador to call the soul away from this alien land, quietly touching +the waiting soul with the finger-tips. In the beautiful "Paolo and +Francesca" the lovers are seen as Dante told of them; wafted along by +the infernal wind; of them he spoke: + + "... Bard! Willingly + I would address these two together coming, + Which seem so light before the wind." + +Francesca's reply to Dante is of Love and Death: + + "Love, that in gentle heart is quickly learnt, + Entangled him by that fair form...; + Love, that denial takes from none beloved, + Caught me with pleasing him so passing well, + That as thou seest, he yet deserts me not. + Love brought us to one death." + +Watts has admirably caught the sweetness and sorrow of this situation in +his beautiful picture, which, again, is one of the very few he +considered finally "finished." It is almost a monochrome of blues and +greys. + +In "Time and Oblivion," one of the earliest of the symbolical paintings, +Time is again the stalwart man of imperishable youth, while Oblivion, +another form of Death, spreads her mantle of darkness over all, claiming +all. + +_Landscapes_.--Although Watts will ever be remembered for his +allegorical, biblical, and portrait painting, yet he was by no means +deficient in landscape art. Indeed, he carried into that branch of work +his peculiar personality. Not only do his landscapes depict beautiful +scenery in a fitting manner, joining atmosphere, sunshine, and colour, +but they convey in an extraordinary degree the mood of Nature and of +Man. "The Sphinx by Night" has an air of mystery about it that +immediately impresses the spectator, and tells him something that cannot +be communicated by words. The Italian and the Asiatic canvases by Watts, +"Florence," "Fiesole," "Correna," "Cos," and "Asia Minor," all induce +the feeling of repose and happiness, and the message that Nature sends +to her devotees comes sweetly and calmly in "The Rainbow," where we look +over an extensive valley from high ground, while heavy clouds and the +rainbow adorn the upper air. In "The Cumulus" we "see skyward great +cloud masses rolling, silently swelling and mixing." They recall perhaps +the memories of the child, to whom the mountains of the air are a +perpetual wonder. When in Savoy in 1888, Watts painted the Alps, again +with a cloudy sky and a rocky foreground. In this the quietude of the +scene penetrates the beholder. English landscape, to which all true +hearts return, was successfully depicted, both in form and spirit, by +Watts' "Landscape with Hayricks" (like the Brighton Downs), a quiet +view from the summit of a hillside, on which are seen some hayricks. But +perhaps the highest of them all is that very peaceful idyll named "All +the air a solemn stillness holds." It was a view from the garden of +Little Holland House. The time is sunset; a man and two horses are +wending their way home. There are farm buildings on the left, and a +thick wood in the background. In this one we feel how thoroughly Watts +uses all forms as expressions of his invisible moods. In purely +imaginative landscape, however, Watts struck his highest note. His +"Deluge" canvases are wonderful attempts; in "The Dove that returned in +the Evening," the bird is the only creature seen flying across the +dreary waste of waters, placid but for three long low waves. On the +horizon the artist has dimly suggested the ark of Noah. "Mount Ararat" +is especially worthy of mention among the landscapes. + +[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--PRAYER + +(At the Manchester Art Gallery) + + This is one of the most simple and beautiful of Watts' early + works. The young woman is kneeling at the table, book in hand, + her mind absorbed in thoughts of reverence. Painted in 1860.] + +Before Watts entered upon his series of great imaginative paintings he +had used realism for didactic purposes. In those days his work was less +rugged than in later times, and had a delicateness and refinement which +is seen to perfection in some of his earlier portraits. A few of these +efforts may be mentioned. "Study" is the bust of a girl, with long red +hair, looking upwards; it represents a beautiful combination of +spirituality and human affection. "The Rain it raineth every day" is a +picture of ennui and utter weariness, beautifully and sympathetically +expressed. The colouring is very brave. In "Prayer" (see Plate VIII.) +the simplicity of the treatment may lead any one to pass it by as +something slight and conventional, but it is perhaps one of the greatest +of this type where simplicity and spirituality are combined. In +"Choosing" Watts approached very near to the summit of simplicity and +charm. A golden-haired girl is choosing a camellia blossom; but where +all are so beautiful it is difficult for her to decide. Great interest +in this picture lies in the fact that it was painted in 1864, and was +drawn from Watts' young bride Miss Ellen Terry. One is almost tempted to +find in this picture the germ of allegory which grew to such heights in +the artist's later efforts. + +_The Warrior Series_.--Watts, like Ruskin and many other of the +nineteenth-century philosophic artists, idealised warfare. His warriors +are not clad in khaki; they do not crouch behind muddy earthworks. They +are of the days before the shrapnel shell and Maxim gun; they wear +bright steel armour, wield the sword and lance, and by preference they +ride on horseback. Indeed, they are of no time or country, unless of the +house of Arthur and the land of Camelot. + +We are thus able to understand the characteristic of Watts' warrior +pictures. The first is "Caractacus," the British chief; though no +Christian, he is the earliest of Watts' heroes. The second is the +beautiful "Sir Galahad," whose strength was as the strength of ten, +because his heart was pure. We see a knight standing bare-headed at the +side of his white horse, gazing with rapt eyes on the vision of the Holy +Grail, which in the gloom and solitude of the forest has suddenly dawned +on his sight. The features of young Arthur Prinsep, with his bushy hair, +who later became a general in the British army, can be detected in this +wonderful and simple picture. Its composition is like a stained-glass +window. It is of all Watts' perhaps the nearest to mysticism, and at the +same time it is an appeal to the young to be like Sir Galahad. The +original is in Eton College Chapel. + +In 1863 followed "The Eve of Peace," in which we see a warrior of middle +age, much like Watts himself at that time, who has lost the passion for +warfare, sheathing his sword, glad to have it all over. The peacock +feather that is strewn on the floor of "The Court of Death," and lies by +the bier in "Sic Transit," is fastened to the warrior's casque. +"Aspiration," also taken from young Prinsep (1866), is a picture of a +young man in the dawn of life's battle, who, wishing to be a +standard-bearer, looks out across the plain. He sees into the great +possibilities of human life, and the ardent spirit of life is sobered by +the burden of responsibilities. "Watchman, what of the Night?" is +another wonderful composition, representing a figure with long hair, +clad in armour, looking out into the darkness of the night, with his +hand grasping the hilt of the sword. The colour, low in tone, and the +whole composition, indicate doubt and yet faith. Ellen Terry was the +model for this painting. + +"The Condottiere" represents the fighting spirit of the Middle Ages. +This soldier is, like the others, clad in armour, and is not likely to +have a vision of the Holy Grail. His features represent the +determination and vigour which were required of him in those ferocious +days. "The Red Cross Knight accompanying Una" is a charming picture, +representing an incident in Spenser's "Faëry Queen," but the palm must +be given to "The Happy Warrior," who is depicted at the moment of death, +his head falling back, and his helmet unloosed, catching a glimpse of +some angelic face, who speaks to him in terms of comfort and of peace. +This picture, of all the others, shows how Watts has insisted on +carrying to the very highest point of idealism the terrible activities +of warfare: + + "This, the Happy Warrior, this is he, + That every man in arms should wish to be." + +He sent a copy, the original of which is in the Munich Gallery, to Lord +Dufferin, whose son was killed in the South African War, and he declares +that many bereaved mothers have thanked him for the inspiration and +comfort it has brought to them. + +Watts' pictures are widely distributed; a roomful may be seen at the +Tate Gallery, Millbank, S.W. Nearly all the portraits of public men are +at the National Portrait Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London. There is a +portrait of Thomas Carlyle in the South Kensington Museum, three or four +pictures at the Manchester Corporation Gallery, and one at the Leicester +Art Gallery. There are also several of Watts' best pictures in a gallery +attached to his country house at Compton in Surrey; while his fresco +"Justice" can be seen at the Benchers' Hall, Lincoln's Inn. + +Watts was conscious of the benefit he had received from the great men +who had preceded him, and in his best moments so essentially humble, +that in his last will and testament, and the letters of gift, he rises +to the great height of artistic patriotism which always appeared to him +in the light of a supreme duty. + +The former document has the following phrases: "I bequeath all my +studies and works to any provincial gallery or galleries in Great +Britain or Ireland, which my executors shall in their discretion select, +and to be distributed between such galleries." This Will is dated +November 1, 1899, and relates to such works as had not already been +disposed of. His great gift to the nation was made in 1897, accompanied +by a characteristic letter in which he says: + + "You can have the pictures any time after next Sunday. I have + never regarded them as mine, but never expected they would be + placed anywhere until after my death, and only see now my + presumption and their defects and shrink from the consequences + of my temerity! I should certainly like to have them placed + together, but of course can make no conditions. One or two are + away, and I am a little uncertain about the sending of some + others; if you could spare a moment I should like to consult + you." + +A few weeks later, following a letter from the Keeper of the National +Gallery, he writes as follows: + + "I beg to thank you and through you the Trustees and Director + of the National Gallery for the flattering intention of + placing the tablet you speak of, but while returning grateful + thanks for the intention of doing me this honour I should like + it to be felt that I have in no way desired anything but the + recognition that my object in work, and the offering of it, + has only been the hope of spending my time and exercising my + experience in a worthy manner, leaving to time further + judgment. Most certainly I desire that my pictures should be + seen to advantage, and have a good effect as an encouragement + to artists of stronger fibre and greater vitality, to pursue + if only occasionally a similar direction and object." + +At the end of a long life by no means devoid of mistakes and +disappointments, it would seem as though Watts attained to his desires. +The man has passed away, while the witness of his aspirations remains. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13477 *** |