Travel and Italy 1843-7
In 1843, aged twenty-six, Watts set off for Europe with his prize money from the inaugural Houses of Parliament competition. He had never travelled abroad before. After six weeks in Paris he went on to Chalon-sur-Saone, down the Rhone to Avignon, onto Marseilles, then to Italy via Leghorn (Livorno) and Pisa. He ended his journey in Florence in the early autumn of 1843 where he intended to study fresco painting and its techniques. Urged to visit the 4th Baron Holland, the English minister, the young artist arrived at the Hollands’ palatial town house, the Casa Feroni on the via dei Serragli, and shortly after moved in at their invitation.
Watts enjoyed a close friendship with Lord Holland and particularly his wife Mary Augusta, the daughter of the 8th Earl of Coventry. The Hollands often retreated to their country villa at Careggi in the hills outside Florence. Here and in town Watts spent much of his time painting and drawing his hosts and their cosmopolitan circle of friends. His thriving social life included the Café Doney, a coffeehouse where an international set of artists met. He relaxed by painting landscapes in the area around the Medici villa at Careggi. With Lord Holland, he even made a quick visit back to London in 1845. They both toured the Riviera coast to Marseilles. In Italy they visited Milan, Rome, Perugia and Naples, where Augusta’s family had the Villa Roccella. Seeing Pompeii and climbing up Vesuvius, as well as the experience of Rome, further encouraged his love of the antique. Steeped in Italian art and culture, he changed his outlook completely.
When the Hollands left Florence in 1846, Watts stayed on at Careggi. He encouraged his patron Alexander Ionides back in London to commission a historical painting on an ambitious scale. He planned to enter another competition for the decorations of the new Palace of Westminster. Watts’s high ideals consolidated as he began to see himself as part of the great traditions of old master painting, evident in his self-portrait.
Barbara Bryant
