THE LIFE OF WATTS.*
MRS. WATTS has told the story of her husband's life and work, and she has done it in a manner that is adequate, simple, and dignified. Three things strike us in the life of this great man : his good fortune in the friendships he made throughout life, the terrible handicap of ill-health, and the absolute clearness of the aim which dominated the life-work of one who from youth to advanced old age never faltered from the pursuit of his ideal and was always sure what his ideal was. Of him it might truly be said that he lived by an invisible flame within him. In the long period covered by the artistic career of Watts many different schools of painting arose in England, and far-reaching changes took place. He, however, was practically uninfluenced by pre-Raphaelite, Realist, Mediaeval, or Romantic move- ments, and pursued his way alone. At the same time, he enjoyed the sympathy of friends, and it was his good fortune early in his career to meet with people like those with whom he became acquainted at Lord Holland's villa at Florence. Later he owed a great deal to the sympathetic surroundings of Little Holland House, and last of all to perfect companion- ship in his home in later years.
It has often been asserted that the genius of Watts was Celtic in its spirit, this assertion having been based upon his family connexion with Hereford and the Welsh border. Mrs. Watts, we think rightly, states that the painter's imagination shows no sign of Celtic origin, though she admits that "the bias of sentiment and association would have inclined me to find in him the characteristics of the Celt, but I think that be knew himself better. The imagination that produced chaos passing to cosmos is not that of the Oelt, which, as I understand it, is a fine fancy that takes it to the borderland where fairy vision and practical fact become con- fused as in a dream." In studying the quality of the temperament of the painter by means of his works, and also with the help of this authoritative biography, the first thing that has to be taken into account is that Watts, like the Happy Warrior, made " his moral being his prime care." He was always profoundly absorbed in the most interesting of all subjects, those great forces which sway and determine the thoughts and actions of men. To him art could never be a mere matter of aesthetic enjoyment apart from the drama of life, any more than painting could be nothing but the realistic representation of the appearance of natural objects. The saying of Millet was exemplified in the work of Watts, " L'art ne vit que de passion, et on ne pent pas se passionner pour rien." Great issues stirred the passion of the artist and inspired him to paint, and every resource of art was
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George Frederick Watts: the Anna's of an Artist's We. By X. B. Watt". 3 vols. London; Macmillan and Co. [81s. 6d. net.]
used to illustrate them. In certain ways Watts was as much misunderstood by some who thought themselves in sympathy with his aims as by those who were frankly antagonistic. Those who were only interested in morality could not grasp the fire and the eloquence of the artistic passion, while those who talked about " sermons in paint " and " souls without bodies" merely showed their own limitations. At the latter part of the nineteenth century many minds were warped by a passing materialist flood which in a scientific age had submerged the outlying portions of the continent of art. Landscape was judged by the principles of geology, and botanists were enthusiastic of the work of a third-rate painter who studied the flowers surrounding Eve at Kew. A standard of mere power of representation was set up as a test for art, and those who strove to maintain and enlarge the expressive power of painting were spoken of as preachers or literary painters. Through all this confusion Watts held his own way, and now that a reaction—perhaps too strong a one —has set in, it is curious to read what he says in some of his
scattered notes on art Here we find sentiments which might have come from the youngest school of the present day, how- ever different their actual practice in paint may be from that of the master. Take, for instance, the following "thoughts
on art," which together with various writings form the third volume of the work before us :- "Art is not a presentation of nature, it is a representation of emotion. The noblest art can no more be evolved by representa- tion of purely material facts, however interesting and impressive they may be as facts, than the noblest music can be produced by the imitation of natural sounds. Some artists present the material shape, some can give, so to speak, the shape of the feeling or impression, some can give both, and this would be the most perfect art, leaving nothing to be desired."
The danger to the idealist in painting is that if he never comes down to earth he loses the power of representing heaven; like Antaeus, he must touch the ground at intervals to maintain his strength. Watts did this by means of his portraits, and through them be kept in touch with actual humanity, and so fortified he was enabled to give force and body to his ideal creations.
In one sense this biography touches the note of tragedy, all through the earlier part of the artist's career we see the growth of a mind essentially made to carry out great organic systems of artistic achievement. He should have been set to work to paint some large connected series of decorations, as our ancestors had built and carved in our cathedrals. Instead he was compelled to paint easel pictures. Even when a transitory movement arose for frescoes in the new Houses of Parliament, and although Watts received a prize fora cartoon, he was not commissioned to paint on a wall. When one stands in the room at the Tate Gallery devoted to his works, it is impossible not to feel that these creations do not really belong there, and that gilt frames and gallery walls are not their appropriate surroundings ; they should be part of an organic whole.
But even as it is, in this gallery we can partly measure the spirit of the man, and feel that he is akin to one other great Englishman—Milton. Both were consumed with a flame of
ardent patriotism and a desire to speak to their countrymen of the things of highest spiritual import. But both were artists through and through, and both took a passionate joy in beautiful things, especially in things in which splendour and largeness of rhythm took part. The poet and the painter both delighted in broad, simple effects illuminated by gorgeous detail. Both cared for the beauty of the world intensely, but more for beauty of the spirit. Milton, in his famous defini-
tion, described poetry as simple, sensuous, passionate. What better description could there be of the style of Watts ?
If we have said little of Mrs. Watts's biography, it is chiefly because she has written it in so self-effacing a manner that it is difficult to quote. From this it must not be imagined that it is in any way uninteresting to read. It is interesting throughout, and especially so in the portraits it gives of the people who were in close association with the painter. At the same time the technical side of the artist's work is treated fully and well, and the record of the way in which Watts refused to sell pictures that be might give them to the nation is astonishing. If a picture was exhibited and brought eager purchasers, be decided that he had succeeded and that the picture must be reserved for his gift. All these things are told with a simplicity of style which is worthy of the quiet dignity of the life which is recorded.
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