Publications
G. F. Watts: Victorian Visionary
Widely regarded as a genius and as the greatest painter of the Victorian age, George Frederic Watts (1817–1904) was a ceaseless experimenter throughout his seventy-year career. He was not only the finest and most penetrating portraitist of his age but also a sculptor, landscape painter, and symbolist. This beautifully illustrated book encompasses the work of his entire career, from his early self-portrait in 1834 and first exhibited painting in the Royal Academy in 1837 to his most iconic work, Hope, and the remarkable, almost abstract painting, Sower of the Systems, completed in 1903. In addition, the book includes historic photographs and archival materials, especially concerning the establishment in 1904 of the Watts Picture Gallery in Compton, Surrey, for the permanent exhibition of his art. Essays by leading scholars examine the artist’s output, life, reception, and legacy.
Mark Bills is curator, Watts Gallery, and formerly senior curator of paintings, prints, and drawings, the Museum of London. He is coeditor of William Powell Frith, Painting the Victorian Age (Yale). Barbara Bryant is an art historian, writer, and consultant specializing in the work of G. F. Watts. She wrote the exhibition catalogue G. F. Watts Portraits: Fame & Beauty in Victorian Society (2004).
Available soon. Pre-orders can be taken.
£20 paperback
£40 hardback
Click here to order a copy now
G. K. Chesterton on G. F. Watts
Brings together Chesterton's book on G . F. Watts along with four essays on the artist not previously published outside their original journals.
G. F. Watts, Physical Energy, Sculpture & Site
Stephanie Brown
Hardback, 60 pages
Illustrated 9 full colour plates and 25 black and white images
G. F. Watts’ colossal Physical Energy is his most ambitious sculpture, known through the original plaster model at Watts Gallery, Compton and three bronze casts in Cape Town, London and Harare. Stephanie Brown examines the less familiar origins of this iconic work in Watts’ equestrian bronze Hugh Lupus and explores how Physical Energy relates to its three very different locations. The ways in which site influences the meaning of the sculpture is explored in relation to physical features, orientation and presentation and the effects of ideological and cultural change. The continuing interest in Physical Energy, a design originally conceived in 1870, is traced to the present day through its ongoing reproduction in statuettes and its emblematic value as a logo or trademark.
This book is to be the first of a series of books that consider significant aspects of Watts’ art.
Victorian Artists in Photographs: The World of G. F. Watts
Mark Bills & David Webb
Paperback, 104 pages
Illustrated in full colour with 154 plates.
Published to coincide with the touring exhibition of the same name, organised by Watts Gallery, Compton, Victorian Artists in Photographs brings us a step closer to a distant age and offers us the opportunity to see the faces, homes and families of artists whose work is so popular. The painters of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, the eminent poets and authors of the day and of course George Frederic Watts and his circle are all included.
An invaluable resource to academics, representing a snap-shot of The Rob Dickins Collection of Victorian photographs now at Watts Gallery, it is also an enjoyable picture book, of beautiful, sometimes quirky but always illuminating photographs of the greatest names of the Victorian age.
Watts Magazine Issue 4
Watts in the City Issue
Mark Bills on G. F. Watts: Victorian Visionary
Hilary Underwood on G. F. Watts: Parables in Paint
Sandy Nairne, Antony Gormley and Patrick Marber on Watts's London Landmarks
An Artist's Perspective on Watts Gallery: Paul Catherall, Printmaker
Available soon.
Watts Magazine Issue 3
Watts and his Charming Gallery!
Ptolemy Dean, Restoration Presenter and Architect
Violet Re-Vitalised
Julia Dudkiewicz, Assistant Curator
The restoration of Watts's portrait of Violet Lindsay
G. K. Chesterton on G. F. Watts
Mark Bills, Curator introduces an excerpt from a new book compiled from Chesterton's writings
Stanford's Symphony No. 6
'In honour of G F Watts'
Mark Bills, Curator
Watts Magazine Issue 2
Watts Gallery: A History
Mark Bills, Curator
A Journey of Hope
Perdita Hunt, Director
Watts & Death
A. N. Wilson
The Good Samaritan
Mark Bills, Curator
Watts Magazine Issue 1
A Masterpiece Revived - Found Drowned
by Mark Bills, Curator
Physical Energy by Antony Gormley
The leading contemporary artist on the importance of Watts and his sculptural masterpiece
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford
Symphony No. 6
'In honour of the life-work of a great artist: G. F. Watts'
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra - David Lloyd-Jones
Available from Watts Gallery with an exclusive cover.
Not many people can claim a symphony devoted to them and G. F. Watts is one of the few that has the honour. Written in the spring of 1905, shortly after the artist’s death, the symphony was premiered in London the following year. After its first performance it was performed only once more before being almost entirely ignored for nearly 80 years. The work was revived recently and a recording is now available on the low price Naxos label, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.