Hope G F Watts

Anybody new coming to this page may like to know that The Watts Gallery is to reopen after being saved for the world.

G F WATTS

Artist and Sculptor

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just a few miles from my home, at Compton, Surrey, England is a fascinating Gallery built by the wife of G F Watts and also a Wonderful memorial chapel. Watts was an amazing sculptor. His paintings to me are often wonderful but the subjects are so often death, pain etc. something some artists are obsessed with.

I will try to bring you some pictures of the Chapel.

I find this is common too among poets. Humans enjoy strong emotions often even if that emotion is painful.

Roger

Take a trip to England

http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/introduction.html

ENJOY

Hello Roger,

To my surprise, I found I have a lot of the most beautiful paintings by G F Watts saved in my computer. I have a huge archive there which I collected long ago out of "Artcyclopedia" and similar art sites. G F Watts is under a special entry, "Romanticism, Symbolism, Pre Raphaelites," which includes several great British painters and sculptors like G F Watts and Dante Gabriel Rosetti but also Turner, Wiliam Blake, Burne-Jones (a couple of paintings only), Richard Parkes Bonnington (wonderful Italian sea and landscapes) and, above all, John William Waterhouse (extraordinary).

I have just saved three paintings by G F Watts to one of my pages in order to show them here if you don't mind. I especially love "Choosing". In collecting his works, I apparently tried to avoid those having to do with pain and death except for a few, like "Death Crowning Innocence" (from 1886-7). But you are right, he had an obssession with those themes, though it did not prevent him from painting some beautiful nude figures, like the one shown down below.

.

G F Watts - Choosing

.

G F Watts - Fata Morgana

.

G F Watts - Sir Galahad (1862)

.

By the way, it was also in my archives that I was able to learn the name of the painting with which you have introduced this great English master artist to us: Hope. I am ready to admit that it is one of his best paintings, if not his best (though I have also seen a portrait of Carlyle by him that is simply fabulous).

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

Luis,

A BRILLIANT SCULPTOR TOO.

Art leads us to areas that we didn't expect.

I am so pleased that I have reminded you of another great artist.

Watts' Tennyson is wonderful.

Alfred Lord Tennyson was another famous resident of my local area. He lived at "Aldworth" his house about a mile from my home.

Roger

Hello again,

Yes, he also was a brilliant sculptor. Here is another master work by him, Daphne (about 1879-82) which I particularly appreciate. Not as elaborated as his Tennyson for sure, but even so full of meaning. As with the Tennyson, the face speaks a lot. And despite its great beauty, it is probably the sort of androgynous face that you would expect to be portrayed by a Pre Raphaelite.

.

G F Watts - Daphne (c 1879-82)

.

I love the statue of Tennyson and the other sculptures in the video. Save for the Daphne I was not familiar with any of them. All, but especially the Tennyson, exhibit a great penetration on the part of their author. It is no wonder that he was so highly appreciated in his lifetime.

Thank you very much for this topic too. I deeply enjoy the time I spend in your forums and posting. I must go now to my other great interest, which is perhaps even more absorbing than this one yet not as attractive. Actually I perceive a certain connection between the two of them, as the Pre Raphaelites apparently had a special interest in the metaphysical component of symbolism. But I will have to take giant steps if I want to get somewhere.

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo