George Frederick Watts (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt: ...who, because he had great possessions, with which he could not bear to part, turned away from Christ himself. We do not see his face, for he has already turned away. But the head, bowed in shame he cannot hide from himself, the rich apparel, and the jewelled hand, are enough. He is neither for God nor for God's enemy, but only for himself. He has asked the wrong question to begin with: 'What can / do for myself?' not 'What can I do to help others?' Let us sadly mark him, and pass him by, and return to Sir Galahad, who heartens us, and gladdens and makes pure our thoughts, as we look at him. Watts's pictures of sin and sorrow and death are" but the necessary contrast to those of holiness and joy and life. To say he is the gloomiest of our painters is to ignore the greater part of his work, and to mistake the purport of the rest. The Childhood of Zeus, Dawn, Arcadia, Aspirations, Sir Galahad--let us not forget later on that Watts painted such pictures as these, as well as Mammon and The Minotaur and the pictures of which the subject is death. AN EPIC OF HUMANITY We have seen that Watts's hope of painting a great epic of humanity on the walls of some appropriate building was destined never to be realised. We may regret this: though, at the same time, it is well to consider that most of the mural painting done in this country, including that of Watts himself, has suffered both from climatic conditions and from the lack of an adequate technical tradition. He did paint his epic, only on canvas; and it is almost certain to endure longer in this form than it would have done in any method of mural painting available fifty years ago. The alliance of painting with architecture gives monumental grandeur and impressiveness; and the Lincoln's Inn fresco shows that W...