Catalogue description Papers of George Frederick Watts

This record is held by Watts Gallery

Details of GFW
Reference: GFW
Title: Papers of George Frederick Watts
Description:

36 small sketchbooks of drawings by George Frederick Watts, mostly draperies and figure studies, with some annotations, 1827-1904; microfiches of George Frederick Watts's correspondence compiled by Mary Seton Watts (in fifteen volumes) following her husband's death, including letters to and from William Ewart Gladstone, the Tennyson family, John Ruskin, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Frederick Leighton (Baron Leighton of Stretton) and Dante Gabriel Charles Rossetti, 1848-1904; letters and copy legal documents concerning the termination of George Frederick Watts's marriage to Ellen Terry, 1865-1877; a small number of original letters to and from George Frederick Watts, but largely to James Smith (who bought some of Watts' paintings), 1858-1904; items of memorabilia including a congratulation address given to George Frederick Watts on his 80th birthday in 1897, containing a sonnet by Algernon Charles Swinburne and signed by his friends, and two Légion d'honneur certificates dated 1896 and 1898.
Date: 1827-1904
Related material:

Watts did not at any time document his work fully or keep a studio book of any kind. He was in the practice of making notes as they occurred to him on any scrap pieces of paper to hand. Following his death, his second wife Mary Seton Watts and her secretary pasted these into notebooks arranged by subject matter, where they were also transcribed by hand. These jottings may have contributed to Mary's biography of her husband, and the notebooks can be found amongst her papers, also at the Watts Gallery [see Mary Seton Watts notebooks and exercise books, in the Mary Seton Watts Papers, Ref MSW]. The Watts Gallery Records [Ref: WGR] contain papers relating to George Frederick Watts's will with a copy of this.
Held by: Watts Gallery, not available at The National Archives
Originals held at:

Original volumes of microfiched correspondence compiled by Mary Seton Watts are now at the National Portrait Gallery
Copies held at:

The Tate and the Courtauld Institute of Art both hold copies of the microfiched correspondence
Language: English
Creator:

Watts, George Frederick, 1817-1904, painter and sculptor
Physical description: 345 boxesmicrofiche
Access conditions:

Microfiche viewer required for correspondence

Custodial history:

These papers are not and should not be considered to be a coherent set of papers generated or accumulated by George Frederick Watts in his lifetime. Instead, they are a selection of materials produced by and concerning Watts accumulated by the Watts Gallery in line with its Acquisition Policy, with the aim of furthering understanding of and research into GFW's life and works.
Publication note:

Blunt, Wilfrid England's Michelangelo, A Biography of George Frederick Watts (Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 1975); Chapman, Ronald The Laurel and the Thorn, A Study of G.F. Watts(Faber, 1945); Watts, Mary Seton George Frederick Watts, Annals of an Artist's Life(Macmillan, 1912)
Subjects:
  • Terry, Dame Alice Ellen, 1847-1928, actress
  • Sculptors
  • Painters
  • Visual Arts
Unpublished finding aids:

Index to microfiched letters by sender/recipient held at Gallery.
Administrative / biographical background:

George Frederick Watts was born in London in 1817, the son of a piano-maker. From an early age he displayed an artistic talent, and studied informally under the sculptor William Behnes (c.1827) and also at the Royal Academy Schools. He began exhibiting at the Royal Academy at the age of 20. He undertook many portrait commissions, and is renowned for his paintings of eminent persons of the age, many of which are now exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery's 'Hall of Fame'. In 1842 he won a competition for designs based on British History for the rebuilding of Westminster Palace. With the prize money he travelled to Italy and studied frescoes (1843-1847). In 1847 he returned to England and won a further competition organised by the Westminster Palace commissioners. Experiencing financial difficulties in the years following this (c.1849-1850), Watts' sympathies turned to the poverty and destitution he encountered daily whilst living in Charles Street, London, and at this time he produced his only paintings concerned with these modern social problems, notably the Irish Famine, and Found Drowned. From 1851 Watts resided with Henry and Sara Prinsep at Little Holland House, Kensington, and remained their guest until 1875. In 1864 he married the actress Ellen Terry, then aged 16. They were separated in 1865, and a divorce followed in 1877. In the 1860's he made his first major sculpture (although the bust of Medusa dates from 1844), and opened a gallery from his home in Melbury Road, London in 1881. In 1884 he exhibited solely at the opening of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Watts refused a baronetcy in 1885 and again in 1894. His second marriage to the artist Mary Fraser-Tytler took place in 1886, and in 1891 the couple settled at their new home Limnerslease, in the Surrey village of Compton. Watts accepted the new Order of Merit in 1902. Watts donated much of his work to public collections, but his wife founded the Watts Gallery in Compton to house a permanent exhibition of the artist's studio collections. It opened to the public shortly before his death in 1904. He is buried in Compton, in the burial ground adjoining the Mortuary Chapel of his wife's design.
Link to NRA Record:

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