What the Press Say

Watch Watts Gallery on BBC's Culture Show, October 2011

"This beautiful arts and crafts building has now been brought back from the brink"

Andrew Graham-Dixon

“The most thrilling opening of the year... The Watts Gallery in the village of Compton, Surrey, is the loveliest of places.”

Rachael Cooke - The Observer

“A hidden treasure in Compton in Surrey, stuffed with huge allegorical paintings and sparkling portraits by George Frederic Watts that were the talk of Victorian society.”

Maev Kennedy The Guardian

“By end of his life, Watts had become one of the most famous artists in the world. With the enthusiasm of those now running the Watts Gallery, his place may rightly be restored to that of a giant among British Victorian artists.”

Virginia Ironside - The Independent

“They’ve not only banished the dinge, gloom and bone-chilling cold, but have also used light, colour and texture to create a visual experience that is as intense as I’ve had in any gallery anywhere.”

Richard Dorment - The Daily Telegraph

“George Frederic Watts was one of the most celebrated artists of his day. His later work influenced pioneers of modern art including the young Picasso and Mondrian...The Watts Gallery was to be not only a monument to Watts’s formidable oeuvre of painting and sculpture, but also a practical resource for local people."

Andrew Graham-Dixon - The Daily Telegraph