Published to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of G.F.
Watts, this book provides a lively and engaging introduction to one
of the most charismatic figures in the history of British art.
Covering all aspects of Watts's career, it places him back at the
centre of the visual culture of the 19th century. George Frederic
Watts (1817-1904) was one of the great artists of the 19th century.
As a young man Watts exhibited alongside Turner, and by the end of
his long career he was influential upon Picasso. Sculptor,
portraitist and creator of classic Symbolist imagery, Watts was
seen also as more than an artist - a philanthropic visionary whose
art charted the progress of humanity in the modern world. After
four years in Italy in the 1840s, Watts was recognized as a
Renaissance master reborn in the Victorian age. Nicknamed 'Signor',
and working in isolation from the mainstream commercial art-world,
he became a cult figure, obsessively returning to a series of
subjects describing the fundamental themes of existence - love,
life, death, hope. Engaging in turn with Romanticism, the
Pre-Raphaelites, the Aesthetic Movement and Symbolism, Watts
remained true to his own personal vision of the evolution of
humanity. As a portraitist, Watts set out to capture the essence of
the great characters of 19th-century Britain, donating his finest
portraits to the National Portrait Gallery in London. Watts's
portraits of figures such as William Morris, John Stuart Mill and
the poets Tennyson and Swinburne have become the classic images of
these cultural celebrities, while more intimate portraits such as
Choosing, showing the artist's first wife, the actress Ellen Terry,
are among the most popular of all British portraits. During the
1880s Watts emerged from his cult status to be embraced by the
public. Feted as the great modern master, even as "England's
Michelangelo", he was given large retrospective exhibitions in
London and at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. His reputation
grew also in Europe, where the Symbolists revered him as one of
their great exemplars. Watts's most celebrated works, such as Love
and Life, Hope, and the epic sculpture Physical Energy, were
reproduced globally and their fame was unsurpassed within
contemporary art in the years around 1900. By this time, Watts had
acquired a country home in Surrey - Limnerslease - around which he
and his second wife, the designer Mary Watts, built a type of
utopian settlement, which has recently been restored and opened to
the public as Watts Gallery - Artists' Village. By the end of his
life Watts was a national figure, an inspirational artist who had
found a meaningful role for art as a catalyst for social change and
community integration.
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