Falmouth Art Gallery

FAMAG 1923.17

More information about the frame

G. F. Watts did, very rarely, use aedicular or antique frames, but generally preferred to stick with the so-called 'Watts' frame (see Charles Napier Hemy, pages 62?63), which he employed for portraits, history paintings and mythological subjects. The present frame is not original to the painting, and may have been chosen, either by Alfred de Pass when it formed part of his collection, or for Falmouth Art Gallery when it entered the collection in 1923.

Enshrined in such a structure, Watts?s fresco is turned into a secular altarpiece. Since his subject is derived from Spenser?s long allegory, peopled with the personifications of virtues and vices, this is at least appropriate, although the proportions of the frame are questionable. The cornice is laterally very obtrusive, whilst having little depth, and the two horizontal members of the frieze are much narrower than the side panels. This might indicate that the frame has been made to fill a particular space ? such as a large overmantel ? and that the potential height of the framed work was so great as to require space to be saved in the entablature and frieze panels. Unfortunately this work does not appear in any of the interior photographs of Cliffe House when it was the home of Alfred de Pass.

About the Artist

George Frederick Watts was born in London on 23rd February 1817, son of George Watts, a maker of musical instruments. At the age of ten he was apprenticed to the sculptor William Behnes. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1835 and won £300 prize money in the Westminster Hall Competition in 1843. With the money he visited Italy, where he stayed in Florence with his friends Lord and Lady Holland. He returned to London in 1847 when his composition 'Alfred' won first prize in the House of Lords Competition. Despite this success he did not attract a great deal of commissions and, further depressed by poor health, he became the guest of Mr and Mrs Thorby Prinsep at Little Holland House until 1875. Watts became the centre of intellectual circles in London and his reputation grew. He said he was a painter 'of ideas, not things' and his large paintings concerned with moral and philosophical issues became highly regarded at the Royal Academy. In 1867 he was elected an Associate of the Academy and was made an RA in the same year. During the 1880s, exhibitions of his work in Manchester and New york established him as a leading Victorian painter. He twice refused a baronetcy, in 1885 and 1894, but finally accepted the Order of Merit in 1902. He died in Guilford on 1st July 1904.