Hello again Roger,

In my opinion, two great mysteries, not one, are involved in Hope.

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G F Watts - Hope

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One of course is the name, which all agree is obscure. But is it really that obscure? And "Hope" is obviously a symbol, but of what?

"Hope is one of the most mysterious and arresting paintings from any age - a blindfolded woman astride a globe, plucking at a remaining single string, when all the others have snapped - an image once seen, never forgotten..." (Hope by G F Watts at Watts Gallery http://www.georgefredericwatts.org/Hope-large.html.)

Well I don't think it is only a symbol of "Hope in despair" related to an unfortunate circumstance concerning the artist (the death of the daughter of his adopted daughter), as suggested at the end of a short discussion about a likely cause in the article.

It goes on like this: "... An evocation of the human condition; the ability of people, at their lowest point to sense and feel a strand, a single string of hope that keeps them going, when all around is failing."

But then the painting is so beautiful and arresting, in fact, so inspiring that "... generations have been captivated by this enduring image not simply because of its haunting imagery, but the meaning that it clearly suggests. It has inspired many, from leading politicians to the poor and destitute..."

May I ask, All this to refer to a personal circumstance? And, why place the blindfolded woman in the picture "astride a globe, plucking at a remaining single string, when all the others have snapped - an image once seen, never forgotten"?

All this suggest quite another answer. And the answer is simple if we think simple. She is not any woman, she is Mother Earth herself riding the Earth globe. And she hopes she and the Earth globe will be saved with all it carries even if there is a last and only chance for it.

This idea, this solution to the enigma was suggested to me by the great similarity between the globe in the picture and the one below by Hyeronimus Bosch, actually the outer wings of his famous tryptic The Garden of Earthly Delights.

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Hyeronimus Bosch - "God creating the Earth"

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More this afternoon.

Best Wishes,

Miguel

Luis,

Thank you for your deep thoughts about this wonderful painting.

I like the "Mother Earth" idea.

Expanding upon that, could it be that she is listening to the instrument which represents the sounds of the planet?

All the time that there is a vestige of sound, the sound of life, there is HOPE.

Roger

Roger,

Yes, and on my part, I like the idea about the sounds of the planet and specifically the sound of life. In fact, maybe she herself is producing that sound, and it could even be that the destiny of the planet symbolically depends on her being able to keep playing music from the instrument, even if plucking a single string.

As you know, I love mysteries, and it was thanks to you that I was immediately attracted to this one. I started from the fact that this is an inmense work of art, one in a million, and its significance cannot be less than inmense. Then, why did G F Watts never disclosed why he named it "Hope" or explain what was the real meaning of the painting? He probably wanted both things to remain a mystery. But this could imply that the two of them, name and meaning, were closely connected, something that whenever a person and his or her name are involved, is perfectly natural in an esoteric / traditional sense.

As to the globe, it would require further explanation involving much of the esoteric studies I have been inmersed in for long now, so I will spare you that part. Suffice it to say that the mid section of it represents in most traditions the "primordial waters" and, by extension, those of the deluge that submerges the Earth at the end of the forth and last cyclic age, which, by the way, might be represented by that last string in the instrument.

I have read at Wikipedia that this great painter and sculptor was very closely associated with the Pre Raphaelites, who not only were fascinated by the medieval culture but also professed a great love for the Nordic and Celtic traditions, before he decided to follow his own artistic path, in which he incorporated elements of the classical mythology and the biblical tradition into his corpus of beliefs. Since both the Nordic and Celtic traditions in a way originated in the primordial (polar) tradition, and had in fact already incorporated elements of it, it would be just natural that he was familiar with the symbolic representation of the Earth as a globe crowned by the edenic seat of the primordial tradition, actually the supreme center from which all other secondary centers - for example the paradisiacal Avalon - were but an image, for they were supposed to have emanated from it.

It is also this supreme center that is believed to keep alive, throughout the ages of darkening of the primordial sacred knowledge, the flame of "Hope" for all humanity.

Best Wishes,

Miguel

P.S. By the way, Barack Obama's polar position mimicking G F Watts' Hope in the Guardian cartoon is yet another image of hope that reinforces my thesis.

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Hope with Apologies to GFW - Phil Disley

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In effect, the Watts Gallery (http://www.wattsgallery.org/) describes how a powerful sermon on the Audacity of Hope, issued in 1990 but itself inspired in a previous lecture in which Watts’s Hope was discussed at length, "was attended by the 29-year-old Barack Obama, who at the time was in his second year at Harvard Law School and president of the Harvard Law Review. Here the President first saw Watts’s painting and was deeply inspired by the sermon which provided the title for his second autobiographical book..."

And while it may be true that "Obama’s Hope is one rooted in a deep faith in the American Dream," which for the author of the text obviously implied that he is or was the embodiment of USA's hope, it cannot be denied that Obama was regarded by many people, at least at the time the cartoon was made, as a ray of hope for the entire world.

THE SISTERS

There is great compassion here in the Irish Famine

G F Watts