Part 12 (2/2)

but at the same time he refused to accept the authority of those 'who deny that art should have any intellectual intention' In general, he pleaded that art has a very wide range over subject and treatment; but he did not set hiratuitously He found that so in shadowy and suggestive fashi+on: if this gave the i, or displayed some weakness in technique, even so perhaps the conception reaches us in a way that could not be attained by dexterity of brushwork As he his that could only be done in art at the sacrifice of sos'; but the points which Watts was ready to sacrifice are what the realists conceive to be indispensable, and his aims were not as theirs But his life was very little troubled by controversy; and he would not have wished his oork to be a subject for it

External circumstances also had little power to alter the even tenor of his way Late in life, at the age of 69, he married Miss Fraser Tytler, a friend of so, as herself an artist, and who shared all his tastes After thewinter in the East, sailing up the Nile in leisurely fashi+on, enjoying the ypt and the colours of the desert

It was a tireat happiness, and was followed by seventeen years of a serene old age, divided between his London house in Melbury Road and his new ho with friends in Surrey, Watts hadsouth of the Hog's Back; and in 1889 he chose a site at Coave the naenerosity of Mrs Watts, who has built a gallery and hung some of his choicest pictures there, Compton has become one of the three shrines to which lovers of his work resort[36]

[Note 36: His allegorical subjects are in the Tate Gallery; his portraits in the National Portrait Gallery]

But for nition froe of 50 that he received official honours froh the success of his cartoons hadhis contemporaries twenty-five years earlier About 1865 his pictures won the enthusiastic admiration of Mr Charles Rickards, who continued to be the ave to his admiration the most practical form Not only did he purchase fro to sell, but twenty years later he organized an exhibition of Watts's work at Manchester, which did much to spread his fame in the North In London Watts came to his own more fully when the Grosvenor Gallery was opened in 1877 Here the Directors were at pains to attract the best painters of the day and to hang their pictures in such a way that their artistic qualities had full effect No one gained more fro circle of adan and ended with the work of these two kindred spirits

The Directors also arranged in 1881 for a special exhibition devoted to the works of Watts alone, when, thanks to the generosity of lenders, 200 of his pictures did justice to his sixty years of unwearied effort

This winter established his fareatest sons But when his friends tried to organize a dinner to be held at the Gallery in his honour, he got wind of the plot, and with his usual fastidious reserve begged to be spared such an ordeal The _elite_ of London society, men famous in politics, literature, and other departments of public life, were only too anxious to honour him; but he could not endure to be the centre of public attention To hihout his life he attended few banquets, mounted fewer platforms, and only wished to be left to enjoy his work, his leisure, and the society of his intie was profound, though it did not often take shape in visible forht be better, and was not s He sy supporter of wo the balance of riches and poverty, and for recognizing the heroises, yet played a heroic part in life The latter he showed in practical form In 1887 he had wished to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee by erecting a shrine in which to preserve the records of acts of self-sacrifice performed by the humblest members of the community The scheely through his help, aarose in the churchyard of St Botolph, near Aldersgate, better known as the 'Postmen's Park'

In private life his kindliness and courtesy won the hearts of all who ca and old, rich and poor He was tolerant towards those who differed from him in opinion: he steadily believed the best of other ht, no malicious word, no petty quarrel marred the purity of his life He had lost his best friends: Leighton in 1896, Burne-Jones three years later; but he enjoyed the devotion of his wife and the tranquillity of his home Twice he refused the offer of a Baronetcy The only honour which he accepted was the Order of Merit, which carried no title in society and was reserved for intellectual ee of 80 he presented to Eton College his picture of Sir Galahad, a fit e quest His last days of active ere spent on the second version of the great statue of 'Physical Energy', which had occupied hi new to express as he dreamed of the days to coradually failed hireat exemplar titian, whom he resembled in outward appearance and in eneration and was yet learning, as one of the young, when death took him in the 88th year of his life

JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON

1827-71

1827 Born in London, April 1

1838-45 At school at Eton

1841 Selwyn goes out to New Zealand as Bishop

1845-9 Undergraduate at Balliol College, Oxford

1850-1 Visits Gere, Oxford

1853 Curate at Alphington, near Ottery

1854 Accepted by Bishop Selwyn for mission work

1855 Sails for New Zealand, March Head-quarters at Auckland

1856 First cruise to Melanesia

1860 First prolonged stay (3 months) in Mota

1861 Consecrated first Bishop of Melanesia, February

1864 Visit to Australia to win support for Mission (repeated 1855)

Serious attack on his party by natives of Sta Cruz

1867 Reoes home to become Bishop of Lichfield

1869 Exploitation of native labour becomes acute

1870 Severe illness: convalescence at Auckland

1871 Last stay at Mota Cruise to Sta Cruz Death at Nukapu, September 20