Watts (1817-1904) — Reading Notes

The Deliberate Obscuring of Faces

Hare observes that in several paintings—including "Eve Repentant," "She shall be called Woman," and "Eve Tempted"—Watts hides the face of Eve. In the first, the face is "upturned, covered in shadow"; in the second, "hid from view by the leaves of the forbidden tree"; in the third, Eve "turns her back and hides her weeping face with her arms." Hare extends this pattern to "The Shuddering Angel," "Love and Death," "Sic Transit," and "Great Possessions," concluding that "often indeed a picture speaks as much of what is not seen as of what is seen." This recurring choice suggests a deliberate emphasis on emotional states over individual identity.

Avoidance of Christ and Apostles

Hare finds it "not a little remarkable" that Watts, despite his deep study of Titian and Raphael in Italy, "should never have attempted the figure of Christ or His apostles." He explains this as a consequence of Watts's ambition to create pictures that were "not only 'for all time,' but apart from time altogether." The only specific reference to Christianity is "The Spirit of Christianity," which rebukes church dissensions through a maternal figure with children, rather than a direct depiction of Christ. Hare implies that Watts's universalizing tendency led him to avoid specific religious iconography.

Symbolic Details in Portraiture

Hare notes that even in portraiture Watts "was so prone" to symbolism. In the portrait of John L. Motley, the background includes "a faint picture of an old-time fighting ship," linking the sitter to his historical subject. The portrait of Thomas Carlyle, described as "ruffled and untidy, with his hands resting on the head of a stick," prompted Carlyle to call himself "a mad labourer." Hare treats this as a revealing self-criticism. These details show how Watts embedded narrative cues within ostensibly straightforward likenesses.

The Frustrated Scheme of 'Cosmos'

Hare mentions that the Biblical paintings were "in partial fulfilment of the frustrated scheme of 'Cosmos.'" This larger project, never completed, helps explain the thematic coherence among works like "Eve Repentant" and "For he had Great Possessions." The latter, Hare writes, uses a young man with "bowed head" and "jewelled fingers, clutching and releasing" as "one of his most powerful criticisms of modern life." The costume and setting are deliberately vague, "of no time or land in particular," reinforcing Watts's aim to address universal human conditions rather than specific historical moments.

Hare's account is shaped by the limited scope of a short biography in the "Masterpieces in Colour" series, but his observations on Watts's visual choices are precise and grounded in specific works. Readers interested in the painter's method will find here a focused analysis of how absence and suggestion function in his art, though the excerpts do not reveal the full range of Watts's output or the critical reception of his work.