Part 12 (1/2)

Music and dancing, literature and good coh none of the his work

Fortune had tried him with her frowns and with her smiles; under temptations of both sorts he reave cause for anxiety froenial clih to enjoy what Florence could give him of beautiful form and colour, and even to travel farther afield One year he pushed as far as Naples, stopping on the way for a hurried glance at Ros were kept to the last; and Watts, high though his expectations were, was overwhelelo', he said, 'stands for Italy, as Shakespeare does for England' So the four years went by till in 1847 this halcyon period ca prizes for fresco-painting, and Watts felt that hepowers to the test and utilize what he had learnt This tilish to resist the Danes by sea' He was busy at work in the early ures, and by April he was on his way ho with him the 'Alfred' ales of completion The picture was placed in Westminster Hall for competition in June, and soon after he was announced to be the winner of one of the three 500 prizes When the Commissioners decided to purchase his picture for the nation, he refused to take ht easily have obtained a far higher price

This is one of the earliest instances in which he displayed that signal generosity whichthe next three years his life was rather desultory He was hoping to return to Italy and did not find it easy to settle down in London He changed his studio two or three times He planned various works, but felt chilled at the absence of any clear encourageeneral public His success in 1847 had not been followed by any commissions for the sort of work he loved: interest in the decoration of public buildings was still spasmodic and too rare

He h they were in their personal relations, they did not see eye to eye in artistic matters Ruskin seemed to lay too much eing the work of Michelangelo and the greatest ht, and many years later, in conversation with Jowett, declared, chary though he was of criticizing his friends To-day there is little doubt whose judgement was the truer, even had Ruskin not weakened his position by so often contradicting hi to make other friends, and was aits rave, and Spedding

The large painting of the 'Story fros in the Watts roo for many years on the walls of this club and was presented to the nation in 1902 How frequently Watts attended the club or other social gatherings at this tiraphies and memoirs of Londoners, and he himself would not have wished the record of his daily life to be preserved His modesty in all personal matters is uncontested, and even if his subsequent offer of his pictures to the nation s other than conceit His portraits were an historical record of the worthiest ories were of value, so he felt, not for their technical accoh moral lessons which they tried to convey The artist himself was at ease only in retireood for hied his steps, and the dejection which caloomiest pictures which he ever painted Their titles and subjects alike recall the ic poe, and in 1850 Watts owed his recovery to a happy chance encounter with friends ere to give hiladden his life for thirty years to coh Indian official, Jahters ere famous for their beauty, and from their tastes and character were particularly fitted to be the friends of artists and poets If Lady Somers was the most beautiful of the sisters and Mrs

Cameron the most artistic, their elder sister Mrs Prinsep proved to be Watts's surest friend Her husband, Thoby Prinsep, was a e-hearted e and full of kindliness Mrs Prinsep herself was ree, fro of a literary _salon_ She and her husband realized what friendshi+p could do for a nature like that of Watts, and they provided him with an ideal home, where he was nursed back to health, relieved of care, and cheered by constant sympathy and affection It was Watts who discovered this home for them in a quiet corner of London, that has not yet lost all its char its park was a s old-fashi+oned house, built in the days when London was still far away At Little Holland House the Prinseps lived for a quarter of a century Here the sisters ca up around the whoht be met froiving regular hours to his work, enjoying their society in his leisure, a special favourite with the children, who admitted him to their confidence and called hi after brilliance; all work that was genuine and of high intention received due honour, and Watts could hope here to carry to fruition the noble visions which he had seen since the days of his youth

These visions had little to do with the exhibitions of Burlington House, the winning of titles, or the acquisition of worldly wealth Watts cherished the old Greek conception of willing service to the coe when ress' was measured by ic that, in the wonderful development of industrial Britain, art, which had spoken so eloquently to citizens of Periclean Athens and to Florence in the Medicean age, should ren of life For a moment our Government had seemed to hear the call, and the stimulus of the Westminster competitions had been of value; but the interest died away all too quickly, and the attention of the general public was never fully roused

If the latter could be won, Watts was only too willing to give the ti of the great railway stations in London seemed to offer a chance, and Watts approached the directors of the North Western Company with a humble petition All that he asked for all space and the payranted, Eustonrailway stations, and passengers for the north h, or waited in, a National Gallery of their own But the Railway Director's ination is not to be weighed in the scale against dividends and quick returns The Coround of expense, while their architect is said to have been seriously alar

Another proposal enerous than thebuilt by Mr Philip Hardwick, in the Tudor style Benchers and architect alike cordially welcomed Watts's offer to decorate a blank ith fresco The work could only be carried on during the legal vacations, and it proved a long business owing to the difficulties of the process and to the interruptions caused by the artist's ill-health

Watts planned it in 1852, began work in 1853, and did not put the finishi+ng touch till 1859 The subject was a group of faures were Moses, Mahone, and Alfred, and it stands to-day as the chief witness to his powers as a designer on a grand scale

Before this he had already dedicated to national service his gift of portrait-painting The head of Lord John Russell, painted in 1851, is one of the earliest portraits known to have been painted with this intention, though it is impossible to fix with accuracy the date when such a scheme took shape In 1899, with the sa of Cecil Rhodes In this half-century of activity he e suent deh prices for the privilege of sitting to him; but few of them attained their object His earlier achievements were limited to a few fae these to be reenerations of that faton in the Ionides collection of pictures Next came the Hollands, of whom he painted many portraits at Florence; and a third circle, naturally enough, was that of the Prinseps In general he wasto undertake, as a mere matter of business, commissions froin its demands upon hi to see and to reproduce all that was most noble in his sitters His nervous teh standard of excellence made him often dissatisfied hat he had acco Tennyson, a personal friend, he was ht of the responsibility which he had undertaken; and in 1879 he gave up a co his aim So far as mere money was concerned, he would have preferred to leave this branch of his profession, the ifts, severely on one side, and to confine hiorical subjects which he felt to be independent of external clai at Little Holland House, Watts formed some of the friendshi+ps with brother artists which added sothese friends was Frederic Leighton, the most famous President whom the Royal Academy has known since the days of Reynolds, a anizer, as well as sculptor and painter, the very variety of whose gifts have perhaps prevented his which he did really well The worldly success which he won brought him under the fire of criticism as no other artist of the tihtsenerous teood causes These qualities, and his sincere admiration for all noble work, endeared hihton paid daily visits to his studio to exchange views and to see his friend's work in progress

For a while Rossetti frequented the circle, but this ard spirit drifted into other paths, and the chief service which he did to Watts was to introduce to him Edward Burne-Jones, most refined of artists and hest admiration, and his friendshi+p was valued to the end Tothese two remain the embodiment of all that is purest and loftiest in Victorian art; and though their treatory were so different their pictures were often hung side by side in exhibitions and their naether in the current talk of the time Burne-Jones was hostly refineery Watts had lishrander, reat race of Botticelli, Watts the richness and power of Veronese or of titian

Those ent to Little Holland House and saw the circle of the Prinseps adorned by these artists, and by such writers as Tennyson, Henry Taylor,[33] and Thackeray, had a singular is; and if they had been asked who best expressed the spirit of these gatherings, they would probably have pointed to the 'Signor', as Watts caure with the small delicately-shaped head, who seees, when art was at once a craft and a religion But feho saw the grace and old-fashi+oned courtesy hich he uessed what fire and persistency were in hieneration, and be still wielding a vigorous brush in the early years of the century to come

[Note 33: Sir Henry Taylor, author of _Philip van Artevelde_ and other poeh official of the Colonial Office]

One interlude in this busy yet tranquil life came in 1856 when he was asked to accompany Sir Charles Newton's party to the coast of Asia Minor Neas to explore the ruins of Halicarnassus on behalf of the British Government, and a man-of-as placed at his disposal The opportunity of seeing Grecian lands in this leisurely fashi+on was too good to be ht happyhimself to a new situation, ' at their Christmas concert

Incidentally he visited Constantinople, as it was necessary to get a 'firman' from the Porte, was commended to the famous ambassador Lord Stratford de Redcliffe and painted two portraits of him, one of which is in the National Portrait Gallery to-day He also enjoyed a cruise through the Greek Islands, where the scenery with its rich colour and bold pure outlines was specially calculated to char career, but both in Italy and in Greece it was the distant views of ht in the beauty of Nature

A different kind of distraction was obtained after his return by occasional visits to Esher, where he was the guest of Mrs Sanderson, sister of Mr Prinsep, and where he spent ah he loved in his old age to watch and encourage the village cricket in Surrey; but riding gave hireat pleasure His love for the horse may in part be due to this pastime, in part to his early study of the Parthenon frieze with its famous procession of horsemen Certainly this anireat equestrian statues occupied hih Lupus', the ancestor of the Grosvenors, was cast in bronze in 1884 and set up at Eaton Hall in the Duke of Westiven to a siure conceived on broader and more ideal lines At this Watts continued to work till the year of his death, though he parted with the first version in response to Lord Grey's appeal when it anted to adorn the inal destination was the tomb in the Matoppo hills; but it was proved impracticable to convey such a colossal work, without injury, over the rough country surrounding them; and it was set up at Cape Town The statue has becolish public since a second version has been set up in Kensington Gardens The rider, bestriding a powerful horse, has flung hi with uplifted hand his eyes against the fierce sunlight which dazzles theh the tame landscape of a London park frames it less fitly than a wide stretch of wild and solitary veld

Horses of ure in his pictures In one, whose subject is taken from the Apocalypse, we see the war-horse, his neck 'clothed with thunder'; in another his head is bowed, the lines har with the mood of his master, Sir Galahad 'The Midday Rest', unheroic in therand in treatment, shows us two massive dray horses, which were lent to him as models by Messrs Barclay and Perkins, while 'A patient life of unrewarded toil' renders syed after years of service, waiting patiently for the end One instance of a inative kind shows us 'Neptune's Horses' as the painter diin the crest of the wave

His portraits of great ths with the sirounds His subjects were of all kinds--Tennyson and Browning, Rossetti and Burne-Jones, Gladstone, Mill, Motley, Joachim, Thiers, and Anthony Panizzi[34] His object was a national one, and the foreigners adland Sometimes the pose of the body and the hands helps the conception, as in Lord Lytton and Cardinal Manning; more often Watts trusts to the simple mass of the head or to the character revealed by the features in repose No finer exaiven than the portraits of the two friends, Burne-Jones and William Morris, painted in 1870 In the former we see the spirit of the dreamer, in the latter the splendid vitality and force of the craftsman, as impetuous in action as he was rich in invention The room at the National Portrait Gallery where this collection is hung speaks eloquently to us of the Victorian Age and the varied genius of its greatest men; and in so able to compare portraits of the same men painted by Watts and by other artists Well known is the contrast in the case of Carlyle Millais has painted a picturesque old ht be racy and his temper uncertain; but the soul of the seer, tor to an inner faith, is revealed only by the hands of Watts

Again Millais gives us the noble features, the extravagant 'hure'[35] of the Tennyson who with force; Watts has exalted this conception to a higher level and has portrayed the thinker whom the world will honour many centuries hence Some will perhaps prefer the more objective treatment; and it is certain that Watts's a to represent the soul of his sitter, he was conscious at times that he failed--that he could not see or realize what he was searching for More than once he abandoned a commission when he felt this uncertainty in himself But when the accord between artist and sitter was perfect, he achieved a triurasp on reality, such as few artists since Giorgione and the young titian have been able to achieve

[Note 34: Sir Anthony Panizzi, an Italian political refugee, the most famous of librarians He served the British Museum from 1831 to 1866]

[Note 35: '”Hure: tete herissee et en desordre”; se dit d'un hones, d'un animal, &c'--Littre]

Apart from portraits there was a rich variety in the subjects which the painter handled, soends or mediaeval tales, soination He dealt with the myths in a way natural to a s than to the close study of Greek literature His pictures of the infancy of Jupiter, of the deserted Ariadne, of the tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, have no elaborate realism in detail The Royal Academy walls showed, in those days, plenty of roves, reproduced with soulless pedantry Watts gave us heroic figures, with strong ed with e love of Diana for Endyret of Orpheus, the cruel bestiality of the Minotaur Sons which he made for the story of our first parents in the Book of Genesis Remorse has rarely been expressed so powerfully as in the averted figure of Eve after the Fall, or of Cain bowed under the curse, shut out from contact with all creation In one of his masterpieces Watts drew his motive froreat possessions' shows us the young ruler who has come to Christ and has failed in the supreme esture of indecision in his right hand, tell their tale with consuories the sareat power is conveyed The popularity of 'Love and Death' and its coory needs explanation These themes were first handled between 1860 and 1870; but the pictures roused such widespread admiration that the painter made several replicas of them Versions are now to be found in the Dominions and in New York, as well as in London and Manchester Photographs have extended their renown and they are so familiar to-day that there is no need to describe the with the subject of Death is the 'Sic transit', where the shrouded figure of the dead warrior is impressive in its solemnity and stillness 'Dawn' and 'Hope'

shohat different notes Watts could strike in his treatment of the female form At the other extreme is 'Mammon', the sordid pohich preys on life and crushes his victiht of his relentless hand The power of conscience is shown in a en, the s in St

Paul's Cathedral with the title of 'Tiement' Its position there sho little we can draw the line between the different classes of subjects as they were handled by Watts A courtier like Rubens could, after painting with gusto a rout of Satyrs, put on a cloak of decorueantry of a court, or even simulate fervour to portray the ecstasy of a saint He is clearly acting a part, but in Watts the character of the man is always seen Whether his subjects are drawn froan myths, they are all treated in the same temper of reverence and purity

It is i of these pictures, though such a wide question, debated for half a century, can receive no adequate treat sere, however loud to-day are the protests of those who preach the doctrine of 'art for art's sake' But the latter, while stating many principles of which the British public need to be rehts It is, of course, permissible for students of art to object to technical points of handling--Watts hi the first to deplore his own failures due to want of executive ability; it is open to them to debate the part which morality may have in art, and to express their preference for those artists who handle all subjects impartially and conceive all to be worthy of treat be achieved But when theyhiround There is no final authority in these questions Ruskin was too dogmatic in the middle years of his life and only provoked a more violent reaction Twenty years later the admirers of Whistler and Manet were equally intolerant, and assumed doctrines which may hold the field to-day but are certain to be questioned to-morrow

Watts was most reluctant to enter into controversy and had no a his views on others, that he scarcely ever took pupils, and was content to urge young artists to follow their own line and to be sincere But he could at ti some of his views on paper, and in 1893 he wrote down a statement of the relative importance which he attached to the qualities which ination stands first, Intellectual idea next to it After this follow Dignity of form, Harmony of lines, and Colour Finally, in the sixth place comes Realism, the idol of so many of the end of the century, both in literature and art

So criticism, Watts had said, 'I admit my want of dexterity with the brush, in some cases a very serious defect,'