28 October 2008
Work by Victorian 'Visionary' on show at Guildhall Art
Gallery
The life and work of one of Britain’s most original and unusual
artists, George Frederic Watts, will be celebrated at a major
exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery next month.
G F Watts, Victorian Visionary: Highlights from the Watts
Gallery Collection, which opens on 11 November and runs until
26 April 2009, brings together work from the Watts Gallery,
Compton, Surrey, and has been made possible by its imminent closure
for its National Lottery-funded restoration project,
Hope.
The exhibition will showcase more than 100 paintings, drawings,
sculptures and photographs, which explore the varied aspects of
Watts’s work, ranging from ambitious and unusual allegorical
compositions to ravishing portraits, landscapes and a deeply-felt
engagement with social issues, such as the Irish famine. Other
items, including Watts’ palette, medals, letters and his wife’s
manuscript record of his work, will also be on display.
G F Watts, Victorian Visionary: Highlights from the Watts
Gallery Collection features a special loan from a private
owner of Watts’s Hope (1886). Widely regarded as the
artist’s most famous allegorical painting, the work depicts a bowed
and vulnerable figure seated on a globe and playing a lyre of which
all but one string is broken - a powerful icon of Victorian faith
and doubt.
Vivien Knight, Head of the Guildhall Art Gallery, says; “G F
Watts was born in London and lived most of his life in the capital,
so his presence at Guildhall Art Gallery is highly appropriate. The
Gallery already owns two of his most famous works - Ariadne on
Naxos, and the marble bust of Clytie. Ten minutes’
walk away is Postman’s Park and its moving memorial, created by
Watts in 1887, to the heroism of ordinary men, women and children
who died saving others.”
G F Watts, Victorian Visionary: Highlights from the Watts
Gallery Collection is one in a series of planned exhibitions
on Victorian artists at the Guildhall Art Gallery; the next
featured artist will be Sir John Gilbert in 2010. Its recent
exhibition on William Powell Frith was one of the Gallery’s most
successful shows, and attracted widespread praise and media
coverage.
Ends
For more information, images and interviews, please contact:
Vivien Knight, Head of the Guildhall Art Gallery, telephone 020
7332 1632, email
vivien.knight@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Tamsin Williams, Press Officer, Watts Gallery, telephone 01483
575136 or 07939 651252, email
press@wattsgallery.org.uk
Notes for Editors:
Guildhall Art Gallery’s exhibition is complemented by G F Watts:
Parables in Paint (1 December 2008 - 30 July 2009; and taken from
the Watts Gallery) in the Crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral.
A new book on Watts, edited by Mark Bills, Curator of the Watts
Gallery and Victorian specialist, and Barbara Bryant, art
historian, writer and consultant specialising in the work of G F
Watts will contain essays by leading scholars and 220 colour
illustrations. It is published by Yale University Press and will be
available from the Guildhall Art Gallery shop, priced £20.00
(paperback).
The Guildhall Art Gallery is run by the City of London
Corporation, which provides local government services for the
Square Mile, the financial and commercial heart of Britain.
Free guided tours of the exhibition at the following dates and
times: 13 Nov, 4 Dec, 8 Jan, 5 Feb, 5 Mar and 2 Apr @ 12.30pm. 27
Nov, 18 Dec, 22 Jan, 19 Feb, 19 Mar and 16 Apr @ 3.45pm.
Monday 24 November 2008: G F Watts: A Life in Art. Lecture by
Barbara Bryant, Victorian specialist and co-editor of the book
accompanying the exhibition.
Tuesday 27 January 2009: “Arousing Pity for Human Refuse”: the
Social Pictures of G F Watts. Lecture on Watts’s London pictures by
Mark Bills, Curator of the Watts Gallery and co-editor of the book
accompanying the exhibition.
Tuesday 3 March 2009 Ophelia: the influence of Ellen Terry on
the art of G. F. Watts. Lecture by Veronica Franklin Gould,
Victorian paintings specialist and author of G F Watts: The Last
Great Victorian published by Yale University Press in 2004.
Doors open at 5.30 pm and lectures begin at 6.30 pm. Evening
ends at 8.00 pm. Tickets for each lecture cost £10 (£8
concessions), to include a glass of wine afterwards. 26 February
2009 at Guildhall Art Gallery and 27 February 2009 at St Paul’s
Cathedral: The Third Annual Watts Symposium. This two-day event
features a wide range of guest speakers, including Professor
Christopher Frayling and leading scholars of Victorian art who will
examine aspects of Watts’s art and their context. The second day at
St Paul’s Cathedral will focus more on the spiritual side of
Watts’s work. For details, please go to
www.wattsgallery.org.uk
For details of other events and activities, please contact the
Guildhall Art Gallery, telephone 020 7332 3700 or email
guildhall.artgallery@cityoflondon.gov.uk