View source for George Frederic Watts

{{short description|English painter (1817–1904)}}
{{distinguish|George Fiddes Watt}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox artist
| name             = George Frederic Watts
| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|OM|RA|size=100%}} 
| image            = George Frederic Watts Cropped.png
| caption          = Watts {{circa|1870}}
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1817|02|23}}
| birth_place      = [[Marylebone]], [[Middlesex]], England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1904|7|1|1817|2|23}}
| death_place      = London, England
| field            = Painting, sculpture
| training         = [[William Behnes]]<br />[[Royal Academy Schools]]
| movement         = [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolist]]
| works            = ''[[Hope (Watts)|Hope]]''<br />''Love and Life''<br />''[[Physical Energy (sculpture)|Physical Energy]]''
| patrons          = [[Alexander Constantine Ionides]]
| awards           = [[Order of Merit]]
|module={{Infobox person|child=yes
| signature        = Signature of George Frederic Watts.jpg}}
| spouse           = {{unbulleted list|{{marriage|[[Ellen Terry]]|1864|1877|end=divorced}}|{{marriage|[[Mary Fraser Tytler]]|1886<!--Per Template:Marriage instructions, year is omitted when marriage ends by death of subject of article-->}}}}
}}
[[File:Miss May Prinsep by George Frederic Watts.jpeg|thumb|''[[Prinsep|Miss May Prinsep]]'']]

'''George Frederic Watts''' {{Post-nominals|post-noms=[[Order of Merit|OM]] [[List of Royal Academicians|RA]]}} (23 February 1817 – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolist]] movement. Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as ''[[Hope (Watts)|Hope]]'' and ''Love and Life''. These paintings were intended to form part of an epic symbolic cycle called the "House of Life", in which the emotions and aspirations of life would all be represented in a universal symbolic language.

==Early life and education==
Watts was born in [[Marylebone]] in central London on the birthday of [[George Frederic Handel]] (after whom he was named), to the second wife of a poor piano-maker. Delicate in health and with his mother dying while he was still young, he was home-schooled by his father in a conservative interpretation of Christianity as well as via the classics such as the ''[[Iliad]]''. The former put him off conventional religion for life, while the latter was a continual influence on his art. He showed artistic promise very early, learning sculpture from the age of 10 with [[William Behnes]], starting to study devotedly the [[Elgin Marbles]] (later writing "It was from them alone that I learned") and then enrolling as a student at the [[Royal Academy Schools]] at the age of 18.

==Career==
===First exhibitions===
He first exhibited at the [[Royal Academy Exhibition of 1837]],<ref name=ELS>[[Edward Lucie-Smith|Lucie-Smith, Edward.]] (1972) ''Symbolist Art''. London: [[Thames & Hudson]], p. 47. {{ISBN|0-500-20125-0}}</ref> with a picture of "The Wounded Heron" and two portraits, but his attendance at the Academy was short-lived, and his further art education was confined to personal experiment and endeavour, guided by a constant appeal to the standard of ancient Greek sculpture.{{sfn|Bell|1911|p=420}} He also began his portraiture career, receiving patronage from his close contemporary [[Alexander Constantine Ionides]], who later came to be a close friend.

===Westminster mural prize===
He came to the public eye with a drawing entitled ''Caractacus'', which was entered for a competition to design murals for the new [[Palace of Westminster#Frescoes|Houses of Parliament]] at [[City of Westminster|Westminster]] in 1843. Watts won a first prize in the competition, which was intended to promote narrative paintings on patriotic subjects, appropriate to the nation's legislature, securing a prize of £300.{{sfn|Bell|1911|p=420}} In the end Watts made little contribution to the Westminster decorations, but from it he conceived his vision of a building covered with murals representing the spiritual and social evolution of humanity.<ref>The complex history surrounding the decoration is best summarized by
[[T. S. R. Boase]], ''The Decorations of the New Palace of Westminster 1841–1863'', in: ''Journal of the [[Warburg Institute|Warburg]] and [[Courtauld Institute|Courtauld]] Institutes'' 17:1954, pp. 319–58.</ref>
===Italian travels===
The prize from the Westminster competition did, however, fund a long visit to Italy from 1843 onwards, where Watts stayed and became friends with the British ambassador [[Henry Fox, 4th Baron Holland]] and his wife [[Augusta Fox, Baroness Holland|Augusta]] at their homes in [[Casa Feroni]] and the [[Villa Careggi]] in [[Tuscany]]. For them he painted a portrait of Lady Holland, exhibited in 1848, and in the villa a [[fresco]], after making some experimental studies in that medium.{{sfn|Bell|1911|p=420}} Also while in Italy Watts began producing landscapes and was inspired by [[Michelangelo]]'s [[Sistine Chapel]] and [[Giotto di Bondone|Giotto]]'s [[Scrovegni Chapel]]. In 1847, while still in Italy, Watts entered a new competition for the Houses of Parliament with his image of [[Alfred the Great]], ''Alfred Inciting the Saxons to Prevent the Landing of the Danes by Encountering them at Sea'', on a patriotic subject but using [[Phideas|Phidean]] inspiration.

===Return to Britain===
Leaving Florence in April 1847 for what was intended to be a brief return to London, he ended up staying. After obtaining a first-class prize of £500, his winning painting at the exhibition in Westminster Hall was purchased by the government, and was hung in one of the committee rooms of the House of Commons. It led, moreover, to a commission for the fresco of "St George overcomes the Dragon," which, begun in 1848 and finished in 1853, formed part of the decorations of the Hall of the Poets in the Houses of Parliament.{{sfn|Bell|1911|p=420}}

Back in Britain he was unable to obtain a building in which to carry out his plan of a grand fresco based on his Italian experiences, though he did produce a 45&nbsp;ft by 40&nbsp;ft fresco on the upper part of the east wall of the Great Hall of [[Lincoln's Inn]] entitled ''Justice, A Hemicycle of Lawgivers'' (completed 1859), inspired by [[Raphael]]'s ''[[The School of Athens]]''. In consequence most of his major works are conventional oil paintings, some of which were intended as studies for the ''House of Life''.

===Prinsep circle===
In his studio he met [[Henry Thoby Prinsep]] (for 16 years a member of the [[Council of India]]) and his wife Sara (née Pattle). Watts thus joined the [[Prinsep]] circle of [[bohemianism|bohemians]], including Sara's seven sisters (including Virginia, with whom Watts fell in love but who married [[Charles Somers-Cocks, 3rd Earl Somers|Charles, Viscount Eastnor]] in 1850), and [[Julia Margaret Cameron]]. Previously staying at 48 Cambridge Street, and then in [[Mayfair]], in 1850 he helped the Prinseps into a 21-year lease on [[Little Holland House]], and stayed there with them and their [[salon (gathering)|salon]] for the next 21 years. (The building was the dower house on the Hollands' London estate in [[Kensington]], near the house of [[Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton|Lord Leighton]].)

===Productive painting period===
While the Lincoln's Inn undertaking was still in progress, Watts was working steadily at pictures and portraits. In 1849 the first two of the allegorical compositions which form the most characteristic of the artist's productions were exhibited—"Life's Illusions," an elaborate presentment of the vanity of human desires, and "The people that sat in darkness," turning eagerly towards the growing dawn. In 1850 he first gave public expression to his intense longing to improve the condition of humanity in the picture of "The Good Samaritan" bending over the wounded traveller; this, as recorded in the catalogue of the Royal Academy, was "painted as an expression of the artist's admiration and respect for the noble philanthropy of [[Thomas Wright (philanthropist)|Thomas Wright]], of Manchester," and to that city he presented the work. From the late 1840s onward he painted many portraits in France and England, some of which are described below. Notable pictures of the same period are "Sir Galahad" (1862), "Ariadne in Naxos" (1863), "Time and Oblivion" (1864), originally designed for sculpture to be carried out "in divers materials after the manner of Pheidias," and "Thetis" (1866).{{sfn|Bell|1911|p=420}}
===Teaching, further travels===
One of only two pupils Watts ever accepted was Henry's son [[Valentine Cameron Prinsep]]; the other was [[John Roddam Spencer Stanhope]] — both remained friends, but neither became a major artist.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gbTd5_RuzisC&q=%22virginia+woolf%22+%22john+prinsep%22&pg=PA28|title=Clouds|isbn=0300057768|last1=Dakers|first1=Caroline|year=1993|publisher=Yale University Press }}</ref> While living as tenant at Little Holland House, Watts's epic paintings were exhibited in [[Whitechapel]] by his friend the social reformer Canon [[Samuel Barnett (reformer)|Samuel Barnett]], and he finally received a commission for the Houses of Parliament, completing his ''The Triumph of the Red Cross Knight'' (from ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'') in 1852–53. He also took a short trip back to Italy in 1853 (including Venice, where Titian became yet more of an inspiration) and with [[Charles Thomas Newton]] to excavate [[Halicarnassus]] in 1856–57, via Constantinople and the Greek islands.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} In 1856 Watts paid a visit to Lord Holland at [[Paris]], where he was then ambassador, and through him made the acquaintance and painted the portraits of [[Adolphe Thiers]], [[Jérôme Bonaparte]] and other famous Frenchmen. Apart from some visits to Italy, Greece and Egypt, the greater part of his subsequent life was passed in the seclusion of his home studios.{{sfn|Bell|1911|pp=420–421}}
===Brief marriage===
In the 1860s, Watts's work shows the influence of [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti|Rossetti]], often emphasising sensuous pleasure and rich colour. Among these paintings is a portrait of his young wife, the actress [[Ellen Terry]], who was 30 years his junior – having been introduced by mutual friend [[Tom Taylor]], they married on 20 February 1864, just seven days short of her 17th birthday. They separated within a year of the wedding; Watts did not immediately divorce her, but made her allowance (paid to her father) conditional on her never returning to the stage.

===Later influences===
Watts's association with Rossetti and the [[Aesthetic movement]] altered during the 1870s, as his work increasingly combined [[Classicism|Classical]] traditions with a deliberately agitated and troubled surface, to suggest the dynamic energies of life and evolution, as well as the tentative and transitory qualities of life. These works formed part of a revised version of the ''House of Life'', influenced by the ideas of [[Max Müller]], the founder of [[comparative religion]]. Watts hoped to trace the evolving "mythologies of the races [of the world]" in a grand synthesis of spiritual ideas with modern science, especially [[Darwinian]] evolution.
[[File:Assistants and George Frederic Watts - Hope - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Hope (Watts)|Hope]]'', painted in 1886 and given to the nation in 1897|alt=]]

===Later life===
With the lease on Little Holland House nearing its end and the building soon to be demolished, in the early 1870s he commissioned a new London home nearby from [[F. P. Cockerell]]: New Little Holland House (backing onto the estate of Lord Leighton), and acquired a house at [[Freshwater, Isle of Wight]] – his friends Julia Margaret Cameron and [[Lord Tennyson]] already had homes on the island. To maintain his friendship with the Prinsep family as their children began leaving home, he built The Briary for them near Freshwater, and adopted their relative [[Blanche Clogstoun]]. In 1877, his [[decree nisi]] from Ellen Terry finally came through, and the [[Grosvenor Gallery]] was opened by his friend [[Coutts Lindsay]]. This was to prove his ideal venue for the next ten years.
[[File:George Frederic Watts by Frederick Hollyer.jpg|left|thumb|265x265px|[https://library.nga.gov/permalink/01NGA_INST/1p5jkvq/alma991734183804896 George Frederic Watts, 1898, platinum print by Frederick Hollyer], [https://www.nga.gov/research/library/imagecollections.html Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC]]]
In 1886, at the age of 69, Watts remarried, to [[Mary Fraser Tytler]], a Scottish designer and potter, then aged 36. In 1891 he bought land near [[Compton, Guildford|Compton]], south of [[Guildford]], in [[Surrey]]. The couple named the house "Limnerslease" (combining the words "limner" or artist with "leasen" or glean) and built the [[Watts Gallery]] nearby, a museum dedicated to his work – the first (and now the only) purpose-built gallery in Britain devoted to a single artist – which opened in April 1904, shortly before his death, and received a major expansion between 2006 and 2011.

===Watts Mortuary Chapel===
Watts's wife Mary had designed the nearby earlier [[Watts Mortuary Chapel]], which Watts paid for; he also painted a version of ''[[The All-Pervading]]'' for the [[altar]] only three months before he died.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.compton-surrey.co.uk/#/wattschapel/4518411494|title=Watts Chapel|publisher=compton-surrey.co.uk|access-date=19 December 2008}}</ref> Both Limnerslease and the chapel are now maintained, and the house owned, by the Watts Gallery. In 2016 Watts's studio in the house re-opened, restored as far as possible using photographs from Watts's lifetime, as part of the Watts Gallery, and the main residential section can be visited on a guided tour.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/en-gb/about-us/artists-village/watts-studios/|title=Watts Studios – Watts Gallery|access-date=9 February 2016|archive-date=5 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505220344/http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/en-gb/about-us/artists-village/watts-studios/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:The Sower of the Systems - G. F. Watts.jpg|thumb|The Sower of the Systems]]
===Collections===
Many of his paintings are owned by [[Tate Britain]] – he donated 18 of his symbolic paintings to Tate in 1897, and three more in 1900. Some of these have been loaned to the Watts Gallery in recent years, and are on display there.
===Awards and honours===
Refusing the baronetcy twice offered him by [[Queen Victoria]], he was finally elected as an [[Academician]] to the Royal Academy in 1867 and accepted to be one of the original members of the new [[Order of Merit]] (OM) in 1902 — in his own words, on behalf of all English artists. The order was announced in the [[1902 Coronation Honours]] list published on 26 June 1902,<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Coronation Honours |date=26 June 1902 |page=5 |issue=36804}}</ref> and he received the insignia from King [[Edward VII]] at [[Buckingham Palace]] on 8 August 1902.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Court Circular |date=9 August 1902 |page=6 |issue=36842}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27470|page=5679|date=2 September 1902|}}</ref>
===Late paintings===
In his late paintings, Watts's creative aspirations mutate into mystical images such as ''The Sower of the Systems'', in which Watts seems to anticipate [[abstract art]]. This painting depicts God as a barely visible shape in an energised pattern of stars and nebulae. Some of Watts's other late works also seem to anticipate the paintings of [[Picasso's Blue Period]].
===Portraiture===
He was also admired as a portrait painter. His portraits were of the most important men and women of the day, intended to form a "House of Fame". In his portraits Watts sought to create a tension between disciplined stability and the power of action. He was also notable for emphasising the signs of strain and wear on his sitter's faces. Of his British subjects many are now in the collection of the [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]]: 17 were donated in 1895, with more than 30 more added subsequently.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person?sort=dateAsc&LinkID=mp04730&role=art&wPage=0 |title=National Portrait Gallery - Person |access-date=21 November 2022 |website=[[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]] |publisher=National Portrait Gallery}}</ref> Some who sat for him from the late 1840s were [[François Guizot]] (1848), [[Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet|Sir Henry Rawlinson]], [[Henry Taylor (dramatist)|Sir Henry Taylor]] and Thomas Wright (1851), [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Lord John Russell]] (1852), [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]] (1856, and again in 1859), [[John Lothrop Motley]] the historian (1859), the [[George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll|Duke of Argyll]] (1860), [[John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence|Lord Lawrence]] and [[John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst|Lord Lyndhurst]] (1862), [[James Parke, 1st Baron Wensleydale]] (1864), [[William Ewart Gladstone|Gladstone]] (1858 and 1865), [[Sir William Bowman, 1st Baronet|Sir William Bowman]] and [[Algernon Charles Swinburne|Swinburne]] (1865), [[Anthony Panizzi]] (1866) and [[Arthur Penrhyn Stanley|Dean Stanley]] in 1867.{{sfn|Bell|1911|p=420}} Other sitters included [[Charles Dilke]], [[Thomas Carlyle]], [[James Martineau]], and [[William Morris]].

===''Physical Energy''===
[[File:Bronze Equestrian Statue of Hugh Lupus, 1st Earl of Chester (geograph 5548127).jpg|thumb|Equestrian statue of ''Hugh Lupus'' hawking on horseback, at [[Eaton Hall, Cheshire|Eaton Hall]] in Cheshire, sculpted by [[George Frederick Watts]] (1817–1904)]] 

[[File:Cape Town Rhodes memorial energy statue.jpg|thumb|upright|Detail of ''[[Physical Energy (sculpture)|Physical Energy]]'' at [[Rhodes Memorial]] in [[Cape Town]], South Africa]]
{{Main|Physical Energy (sculpture)}}
Although best known as a painter, Watts was also a sculptor. After completing a commission for the [[Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster|Duke of Westminster]] for an equestrian monument to commemorate his ancestor, [[Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester|Hugh Lupus]], Watts set to work on a new plaster model of another horse and rider, without specific reference to any individual, in 1883. Seeking to reinvigorate the rhetoric of the equestrian monument for the modern age, he was still working on it at the time of his death in 1904. The plaster model was part of the artist's bequest to Watts Gallery, and, also in 1904, the first bronze cast of the work (made in 1902 at the Parlanti Foundry)<ref>''The Illustrated London News'', 3 October 1903, p484.</ref> became the artist's last submission to the Royal Academy's summer exhibition. It marked a new prominence for the courtyard of Burlington House as a site for dramatic contemporary sculpture (a role continued today by the Annenberg Courtyard). ''Physical Energy'' then travelled to Cape Town to form part of a memorial to the founder of Rhodesia (now [[Zimbabwe]]), [[Cecil Rhodes]]. In 1907, a posthumous cast was made and sited in Kensington Gardens, London, fulfilling the artist's intention to gift the work to the British Government, insisting that it should be "for the nation" and displayed "somewhere in London". A third cast, created in 1959, is situated in the grounds of the [[National Archives of Zimbabwe]] in [[Harare]].

The culmination of Watts's ambition in the field of public sculpture, ''Physical Energy'' is an allegory of human vitality and humanity's ceaseless struggle for betterment; he said it was "a symbol of that restless physical impulse to seek the still unachieved in the domain of material things". It also embodied the artist's belief that access to great art would bring immense benefits to the country at large.

=== Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice ===
{{Main|Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice}}
[[File:George Frederic Watts's Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice (29881714055).jpg|thumb|George Frederic Watts's Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice]]
An admirer of royalty – he had painted [[François d'Orléans, Prince of Joinville|Prince de Joinville]] and Edward, Prince of Wales – Watts proposed, in 1887, to commemorate the [[Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria]] by creating a [[Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice]] to commemorate ordinary people who had died saving the lives of others, and who might otherwise have been forgotten. The scheme was not accepted at that time, but in 1898 Watts was approached by [[Henry Gamble]], the vicar of [[St Botolph's Aldersgate]] church. He suggested the memorial could be created in [[Postman's Park]] in the [[City of London]].

The memorial was unveiled in an unfinished state in 1900, consisting of a 50-foot (15&nbsp;m) wooden loggia designed by Ernest George, sheltering a wall with space for 120 ceramic memorial tiles to be designed and made by [[William De Morgan]]. At the time of opening, only four of the memorial tiles were in place. Watts died in 1904, and his widow Mary Watts took over the running of the project.

== Reception ==
Several reverent biographies of Watts were written shortly after his death; and one (by [[G. K. Chesterton]]) earlier in the year of his death. With the emergence of [[Modernism]], however, his reputation declined. [[Virginia Woolf]]'s comic play ''Freshwater'' portrays him in a satirical manner, an approach also adopted by [[Wilfrid Jasper Walter Blunt|Wilfred Blunt]], former curator of the Watts Gallery, in his irreverent 1975 biography ''England's Michelangelo''. In his 1988 book on [[John Ruskin|Ruskin]], the art critic [[Peter Fuller]] emphasised Watts's spiritual and stylistic importance, also noting that late post-symbolist works such as ''The Sower of the Systems'' "stretched beyond the brink of abstraction".<ref>Fuller, Peter. ''Theoria: Art and the Absence of Grace''. London, Chatto and Windus, 1988.</ref> On the centenary of his death Veronica Franklin Gould published ''G. F. Watts: The Last Great Victorian'', a positive study of his life and work.

The composer [[Charles Villiers Stanford]] wrote his Sixth Symphony "In Memoriam G. F. Watts". It was composed in 1905 and first performed on 18 January 1906 in London under Stanford's direction. The four movements, although not having a detailed programme, are inspired by several works of art by Watts.

Literary references to Watts and his work include [[Elizabeth Taylor (novelist)|Elizabeth Taylor]]'s 1953 novel ''[[Angel (novel)|Angel]]'', where a picture by Watts is donated to a provincial museum by the protagonist, and mention of Watts's painting ''Progress'' in ''[[Bella Donna (novel)|Bella Donna]]'' by [[Robert Smythe Hichens|Robert Hichens]] (1909, p.&nbsp;34). Watts features (not altogether favourably) as a character in [[Lynne Truss]]'s comic novel ''Tennyson's Gift'' (1996).

== Gallery ==
<gallery heights="200" mode="packed">
File:George Frederick Watts, 1860-62, Sir Galahad, oil on canvas, 191.8 x 107 cm, Harvard Art Museums, Fogg Museum.jpg|''Sir [[Galahad]]''
File:George Frederick Watts 001.jpg|''Self-portrait''
File:Watts-Paolo and Francesca.jpg|''Paolo and Francesca''
File:George Frederic Watts - Fata Morgana, 1865.jpg|''[[Morgan le Fay|Fata Morgana]]'', 1865
File:Watts George Frederic Orpheus And Eurydice.jpg|''Orpheus And Eurydice''
File:Watts George Frederic The Judgement Of Paris.jpg|''The Judgement of Paris''
File:George Meredith by George Frederic Watts.jpg|''Portrait of [[George Meredith]]''
File:Physical Energy, Kensington.jpg|''[[Physical Energy (sculpture)|Physical Energy]]''
File:Dante Gabriel Rossetti by George Frederic Watts.jpg|''[[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]]''
File:Henry Thoby Prinsep by George Frederic Watts.jpeg|''[[Henry Thoby Prinsep]]''
File:Self portrait by George Frederic Watts 1864.jpeg|''Self-Portrait'', 1864
File:Sir Leslie Stephen by George Frederic Watts 1878.jpeg|''Sir [[Leslie Stephen]]'', 1878
File:George Frederic Watts (1817-1904) - Orlando Pursuing the Fata Morgana - L.F5.1889.0.0 - Leicester Museum ^ Art Gallery.jpg|''[[Orlando Pursuing the Fata Morgana]]'', 1848
File:Watts marie fox.jpg|''[[Marie Fox|Miss Mary Fox]], with Spanish Pointer'', c. 1854
File:The wounded heron.jpg|''The wounded heron'', 1837 ([[Watts Gallery]])
File:Good Samaritan (Watts).jpg|''The [[Parable of the Good Samaritan|Good Samaritan]]''
File:George Frederic Watts by George Andrews.jpg|Portrait by [[Louis Deuchars|L. R. Deuchars]]
File:Dame (Alice) Ellen Terry ('Choosing') by George Frederic Watts.jpg|''Choosing'' ([[Ellen Terry]]), ca. 1864
File:EB1911 Plate V. v24, pg.506, Fig 3.jpg|The bust of [[Clytie (Oceanid)|Clytie]]
File:Love and Life.jpg|''Love and Life'' (c. 1884-1885)
File:George Frederic Watts - The Minotaur - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[The Minotaur (painting)|The Minotaur]]'', 1885
File:Thomas Carlyle Oil Painting 1868 (painted).jpg|''Portrait of [[Thomas Carlyle]]''
File:A Study of a Head - George Frederick Watts - ABDAG007223.jpeg|link=|''A Study of a Head'' - [https://emuseum.aberdeencity.gov.uk/objects/6402 Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums]
File:A Study of a Head - George Frederick Watts - ABDAG007222.jpeg|link=|''A Study of a Head'' - [https://emuseum.aberdeencity.gov.uk/objects/6401 Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums]
</gallery>

== References ==
{{More footnotes needed|date=November 2022}}
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Watts, George Frederick|volume=28|pages=420–422|first=Malcolm|last=Bell}} This includes a longer list of his portraits and an extended critical summary of his art.
* ''England's Michelangelo: A Biography of George Frederic Watts'' (1975) by Wilfrid Blunt, Hamish Hamilton.
* ''Discovering the Sculptures of George Frederick Watts O.M., R.A.'' (1994) by Elizabeth Hutchings, Hunnyhill. {{ISBN|0-9521939-6-5}}
* ''The Laurel and the Thorn; A Study of G. F. Watts'' (1945) by Ronald Chapman, Faber and Faber Ltd.
* ''The Art of G. F. Watts'' (2017) by Nicholas Tromans, Paul Holberton Publishing. {{ISBN|1-9113000-7-5}}
* ''G. F. Watts Portraits: Fame and Beauty in Victorian Society'' (2004) by Barbara Bryant, NPG. {{ISBN|1-8551434-7-X}}
* ''G. F. Watts: The Last Great Victorian'' (2004) by Veronica Franklin Gould, Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-3001057-7-0}}

== External links ==
*{{Commons-inline}}
*{{Wikiquote-inline}}
*{{Art UK bio}}
*[https://archive.org/details/worldofgfwattsra00spie The works of G.F. Watts, R.A.] (1886)
*{{ODNBweb|id=36781|title=Watts, George Frederic}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060823195707/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/restoration/2006/se_watts_gallery_01.shtml BBC Restoration Appeal for the Watts Gallery]
*[http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/ The Watts Gallery, Compton]
*[http://www.georgefredericwatts.org/ georgefredericwatts.org], 392 works by George Frederic Watts
{{Gutenberg|no=13477|name=Watts (1817–1904) by William Loftus Hare}}, with eight reproductions in colour. (by [[William Loftus Hare]])
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20091002222535/http://www.tate.org.uk/learning/worksinfocus/watts/ Watts – 5 works in focus] at Tate Online
*[http://www.npg.org.uk/live/watts.asp G.F. Watts: Portraits, Fame & Beauty in Victorian Society] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006121834/http://www.npg.org.uk/live/watts.asp |date=6 October 2008 }}, 2004–05 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

{{George Frederic Watts}}
{{Authority control}}

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