G.F. Watts: The Hall of Fame - Portraits of his Famous Contemporaries
7 February – 3 June 2012
Exhibitions Gallery
'The exhibition adds yet another dimension to the accomplishment of this most eminent and multifaceted of all Victorian artists.'
The Telegraph
'There is a splendid invitation here to rethink the relationship between photography and painting in Victorian Britain'
Financial Times
An opportunity to see many of Watts's finest portraits including those of Tennyson, Millais, Morris, Leighton and Manning. The portraits are being loaned by the National Portrait Gallery, Leighton House Museum and a private collection and as such this represents a unique opportunity to see Watts's finest portraits gathered together.
Between 1847 and 1901 G.F. Watts created a magnificent portrait gallery of his great contemporaries for presentation to the nation. By the end of his life he was to give more than forty portraits to the National Portrait Gallery in London, a unique record of the people he most admired, of whom many were his friends.
The great poets and artists of the day sat to him, Tennyson and Browning, Leighton and Rossetti, together with thinkers and philanthropists, among them J.S. Mill and Thomas Carlyle, and a scattering of statesmen.
Watts claimed that he wished to paint the mind and soul of his sitters as well as their outward appearance. Avoiding fashionable dress and accessories, he depicted them as men of destiny, profound thinkers and creative geniuses, in a timeless style quite unlike that of any other artist of the period.
Click below to view sample pages from the accompanying catalogue
Exhibition Highlights
1. G.F. Watts, Sir John Everett Millais (1829-96), 1871
2. G.F. Watts, Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-92), 1862-4
3. G.F. Watts, George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll (1823-1900), c. 1860
4. G.F. Watts, William Morris (1834-96), 1870
5. G.F. Watts, Lord John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792-1878), c. 1851
6. G.F. Watts, Sir Anthony Panizzi (1797-1879), 1847
