|
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
G.F. Watts
|
|
(George Frederic Watts, 1817–1904) Painter who used a wide variety of styles, often for heavily allegorical subjects. He is appreciated now mainly for his portraits (for example Ellen *Terry, who was briefly his child bride). Hope (1886, a version in the Tate) is so full of symbolist mystery that it has caught the public's fancy; on a globe, partly wreathed in mist, sits a hunched and blindfold maiden plucking an instrument with broken strings. Watts was also a sculptor, and Physical Energy in *Kensington Gardens shows yet another very different side of his talent. His high reputation in his lifetime is shown by his selection, at the age of 85, as the only artist among the founding members of the Order of *Merit. His house at Compton, near Guildford, is kept as a museum.
|
|
|
|