Violet Re-Vitalised

Ptolemy Dean on Watts Gallery’s Charm

G. K. Chesterton on G. F. Watts

Friends, Events & Booking Form

MagazineWATTS

Issue 3 Summer 2008 £1

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Victorian and Edwardian ArtAUCTION IN LONDON 15 JULY 2008 I ENQUIRIES 44 (0)20 7293 5497 I SOTHEBYS.COM

George Frederic Watts O.M., R.A.Portrait of Edith Villiers, Later The Countess of Lytton (detail)

ESTIMATE £30,000 – 50,000

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Thank You

Watts Gallery is deeply grateful to all its donors and in particular would like to thank its very generous benefactors:

Esmée Fairbairn FoundationThe Deborah Loeb Brice FoundationGarfield Weston FoundationJohn Ellerman FoundationWolfson FoundationGuildford Borough CouncilThe George John and Sheilah Livanos Charitable TrustRichard Ormond CBEProfessor Rob Dickins CBEChristopher ForbesPeter Harrison FoundationThe Robert Gavron Charitable TrustAn Anonymous DonorDavid PikeThe Pilgrim TrustThe Isabel Goldsmith Patino FoundationThe Art FundFoundation for Sport and the ArtsJ. Paul Getty Jr. Charitable TrustRothschild FoundationThe Linbury TrustFinnis Scott Foundation The Ingram TrustEnglish HeritageThe Foyle Foundation

Watts Magazine Issue 3 Watts Gallery, Down LaneCompton, Surrey GU3 1DQ01483 810235info@wattsgallery.org.ukwww.wattsgallery.org.uk

Cover - G. F. Watts, Violet Lindsay, Watts Gallery Collection. Adopted for conservation by Julian Spencer-Smith. Copyright - All images and text © Watts Gallery, unless otherwise stated.

Editor - Andrew Churchillmarketing@wattsgallery.org.ukAdvertising - Georgina Ripley, Kim Jenner, Jane Grylls - 0207 300 5751

Gallery NewsHeritage Lottery Fund Award £4.3 million Grant

The Heritage Lottery Fund have awarded the £4.3 million grant that will enable a two-year major restoration project to begin in the autumn. To secure this lifeline, Watts Gallery has had to raise almost £4 million, which has been made possible by the wonderful efforts and generosity of the local community, Trusts, Foundations and individuals.

“This is a truly epic day in the 104-year history of Watts Gallery!”, says Perdita Hunt, Watts Gallery’s Director. “Launching the Hope Appeal in 2004, we faced a mammoth task in raising the £10 million required to safeguard both the Gallery and its internationally significant collection.”

“In 2006, when Watts Gallery reached the final of BBC Restoration Village, our hopes were raised only to suffer disappointment at the very last minute when it was announced that Watts Gallery had so narrowly missed out on winning the first prize. Then, in December 2006, our spirits were lifted once again with the welcome news that our application to the HLF had been successful, and that a £4.3 million grant had been earmarked for Watts Gallery on condition that we match this sum through our own fundraising activity.”

Watts Galley staff and volunteers celebrate the announcement Photograph courtesy of Surrey Advertiser

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Sale of two paintings raises over £1.5 million for care of the Watts Gallery core collection

Watts Gallery Trustees have completed the sale of Jasmine by Albert Moore and The Triumph of Love by Edward Burne-Jones achieving a price, including buyer’s premium, of £1,777,250 for the Moore and £457,250 for the Burne-Jones. This now make a contribution towards the long-term care of the core collection of over £1.5 million. This has been a difficult decision but was the only viable solution to secure the Watts collection at Watts Gallery for future generations. Isabel Goldsmith, Trustee and donor to Watts Gallery says: “The difficult decision to sell works from the non-core collection has been in part mitigated by the relief in knowing that the collection at Watts Gallery is now better protected for the future.”

Planning permission granted

Guildford Borough Council and the Government Office of the South East have approved proposals by architects Zombory-Moldovan Moore for the restoration of Watts Gallery. Perdita Hunt, Director commented: “We are absolutely delighted and wish to thank Guildford Borough Council for their support of the Gallery. It’s marvellous news and another milestone in our journey of hope. The plans will preserve the ethos of the Gallery, but make use of 21st Century advances. We are so grateful to our neighbours and the local community and to everyone who is helping us in our efforts to save this special place for future visitors and students.”

28 September new closure date and Information Point launch

Due to overwhelming demand Watts Gallery will stay open to the public for four further weeks to allow as many people as possible to enjoy the Gallery before work begins for nearly two years. The last day will be Sunday 28 September. Early conversations with contractors has allowed this extension to happen without putting any pressure on the programme. From 4 October there will be an Information Point on the Estate. This will allow visitors to the Estate to stay up to date on the restoration, find out about the Gallery and collection and visit the shop.

Gallery NewsHeritage Lottery Fund Award £4.3 million Grant

There remains a slight shortfall in Watts Gallery’s own fundraising target. Perdita adds, “As a result of being able to demonstrate just how many people cherish Watts Gallery, and are committed to securing its future, the HLF has accepted our pledges to raise the outstanding sum. We would appeal to anyone who may be able to help us to overcome this final hurdle in our efforts to save one of Europe’s most beautiful small galleries.”

Carole Souter, Chief Executive of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said: “Watts Gallery, one of Surrey’s hidden jewels, has been enchanting everyone who walks through its door for a century. Quintessentially English, it;s a small gallery that’s big on charm. We’re delighted to be supporting these vital restoration works which will not only secure the Gallery’s future but also enable it to continue to welcome local visitors as well as attracting new ones.”

To find out how you can help, please visit www.wattsgallery.org.uk or call 01483 810235.

Watts Galley staff and volunteers celebrate the announcement Photograph courtesy of Surrey Advertiser

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Sun Shines on a Gallery in Waiting Perdita Hunt, Director

It does not seem believable that our journey of Hope is now entering the chapter entitled ‘Restoration’! When we set out on this journey in 2004, the idea of raising the necessary money to save Watts Gallery and its collection of international importance seemed a distant dream. Thanks to the heart warming response of so many individuals, Trusts, sponsors and local authorities we can really say that we can start the process of restoration. I am so grateful to all who have invested in this shared ambition of giving the Gallery another hundred years of existence. Support has come in so many forms from stewards who tirelessly man the Gallery to enable us to pursue support for restoration or manage the collection, to incredibly generous individuals who have invested heavily in our ambitious project and made it all possible. Thank you to you all.

The most exciting development of all is the Heritage Lottery Fund decision to unlock their grant of £4.3m. This would not have been possible without the generosity of some or our leading benefactors such as the Isabel Goldsmith Patino Foundation, the Deborah Loeb Brice Foundation, the Garfield Weston

Foundation and the George John and Sheilah Livanos Trust and so many others. We are very grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund who have provided advice and guidance throughout our journey. A further excellent milestone was the receipt of planning permission and listed building consent. We are most grateful to Guildford Borough Council for their continuing support of Watts Gallery. The sale of the two pictures, one by the Albert Moore and one by Burne-Jones, which are not part of the core collection, was the conclusion of a long a difficult process. This was the only viable option available to Trustees in reaching the necessary target on ensuring that the long-term care of the collection was secure.

Memorable moments have included a dinner held at Tate Britain, hosted by Rupert Hambro in support of Watts Gallery’s Hope Appeal and the Patrons’ visit to Antony Gormley’s studio was a privilege.

Recent donors who have generously contributed their much needed support to the Hope Project include English Heritage who will help with listed building repairs, the Foyle Foundation who has provided a generous grant to support the restoration of the Education studio and The Ingram Trust who has critically helped us to close the gap in the funding requirement for HLF. Christopher and Teresa Satterthwaite have generously given of their support in helping us achieve our target of recruiting 2010 Friends by 2010 and we are now launching a campaign to recruit those people who will be the first to enter the refurbished Gallery.

In a sense, we are entering the most difficult part of our journey. We have made promises to you all that we will not lose the atmosphere of Watts and its unique, rather eccentric, very English character. With contractors, builders, electricians, health and safety experts, monitors, architects, plumbers, environmentalist, landscape gardeners, how do we protect this building which has been gently dozing for one hundred years? It’s a challenge, and you will judge our success or failure on our re-opening.

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At a paintings auction on 15th July at Sotheby’s, London, the first lot will be a small but extraordinary portrait by George Frederic Watts. It is a portrait of Edith Villiers (1841-1936) around the age of 21, depicted in profile, with her hair loosened and flowing shown against the rich floral wallpaper of a room at Little Holland House.

One might reasonably ask why the Watts Gallery should acquire yet another portrait by Watts when we have so many good examples. The answer is that this portrait really is exceptional and will fill a gap in Watts Gallery’s collection. It is particularly special because of its sheer quality, painted in 1862, a period when Watts was arguably at his zenith as a portrait painter. Furthermore, the aestheticism that it displays in its form and beauty is not overly represented at Watts Gallery. The simple wallpaper backdrop from Watts’s home and studio at Little Holland House is a pattern of roses which symbolises both love and purity. The sensuality and intimacy of the picture is remarkable. It is not a formal moment, but catches the moment when she has let down her hair, itself a private act, with a relaxed and serene expression. If it has an equivalent, it is Choosing at the National Portrait Gallery, which was painted just two years later.

This is an important painting and one which, if we succeeded in acquiring it, would represent a significant addition to the collection. Friends give so much, but I would like to ask if anyone could help in us trying to save the painting for Watts Gallery. Paintings like this do not come up for sale very often. How wonderful if this could become part of a public collection and be seen by visitors to the gallery, something we know Watts would have wanted. The last time it was shown in public was in 2004 at the National Portrait Gallery, it would be nice to think that the next time will be Watts Gallery July 2008! It will also be the centrepiece of a wall in the newly restored Gallery in 2010 helping us to establish ourselves as a centre of excellence and the place to see G F Watts at his greatest.

Help Us to Acquire a Masterpiece by G. F. Watts Mark Bills, Curator

G. F. Watts, Edith Villiers, 1862If you can help us to acquire this painting please call Mark Bills or Perdita Hunt on 01483 810235

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Gallery News

Patrons visit Gormley’s London

On 11 June the Patrons of Watts Gallery, who generously each give between £500 and £1,000 annually to Watts Gallery, were given a tour by the leading British sculptor Antony Gormley, of his studio. Gormley is an important supporter of Watts Gallery and a great champion of Watts as an artist. In the course of the fascinating discussion of his work he time and again referred back to Watts, commenting that “it is extraordinary that Watts is not better known.”

Gormley took the time to talk in some detail about the conception of his work. Perhaps his most insightful comment on his work came in his assertion that “Watts’s art is about life and for life” and that this is something he too wishes to achieve. He finished by saying “may Watts’s work continue to be better known and better loved”. We are most grateful to him for his time, hospitality and support of Watts Gallery. We would like to thank Adam Prideaux of Blackwall Green, part of the Heath Lambert Group, for arranging and supporting the evening. To find out about becoming a Patron of Watts Gallery contact the Appeal Co-ordinator on 01483 810235

Clockwise from above: Patron Martin Beisly listens to Antony Gormley; Adam Prideaux, Blackwall Green, Perdita Hunt, Director and Antony Gormley; Mark Bills, Curator and Grayson Perry at the dinner held at Tate Britain. Gormley photographs by Barbara Knight.

Watts Gallery Dinner held at Tate

A dinner held at Tate Britain by the kind permission of Stephen Deuchar, Director of Tate Britain, and generously hosted by Rupert Hambro raised further gifts for the Hope Appeal and was attended by Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry. Other guests included Debby Brice, Christopher and Teresa Satterthwaite, Dr. David Cohen, the photographer John Swannell and Lord and Lady Faringdon.

Ptolemy Dean Opens Exhibition

Making a welcome return to Watts Gallery since presenting BBC Restoration Village in 2006, Ptolemy Dean gave an impassioned speech to mark the opening of ‘Watts Gallery: A Journey of Hope’. Praising the fund-raising activities but calling for the charm to be retained in this special Gallery he admitted that he felt Watts Gallery should have won the competition. You can read his full speech on page 14.

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• • • • •• • •• • •• •••••••••••••••• • ••• •• •• • • • • • • • • • •Untitled-11 1 16/6/08 16:29:19

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Free Family Open DaySunday 27 July, 11-5pm

Celebrated children’s author and illustrator, Val Biro, has confirmed that he will be bringing his famous 1926 Austin Clifton Heavy, Gumdrop, to Watts Gallery’s Open Day on Sunday 27 July. The free event, which promises non-stop entertainment from 11am – 5pm, will be the final Open Day to be held at Watts Gallery before Gallery embarks on the restoration project.

The annual event will be opened by Fred Marden, BBC Southern Counties Radio and will include free Gallery tours, artist led workshops, art and craft exhibitions and stalls, storytelling, a ‘Watts Walk around Compton’ and a host of activities for all the family.

Perdita Hunt, Director, says, “This event is a true milestone in Watts Gallery’s history; the Open Day will kick-start the final five weeks before the Gallery closes to the public for restoration on 31 August, reopening in 2010.”

Poet Laureate Andrew Motion visits Watts Gallery

The poet laureate Andrew Motion visited Watts Gallery recently in a private capacity, something he has done frequently over many years. He expressed his delight at seeing so much activity in the Gallery and that a place he loves is being saved. In the foreword he wrote for

Gallery News

G. F. Watts: Portraits, a catalogue for an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2006 he says of Watts Gallery: “...and there it was: an Arts & Crafts dream turned into reality. Shaggy bushes concealing much of the facade. A row of pert little dormer windows. The entrance more like the opening of a bower than the way into a building.” We are grateful to him for taking the time to sign some copies of his book, which are for sale in the shop.

3rd Annual Watts Symposium

We are delighted to confirm details of the 3rd Annual Watts Symposium, which has been timed to coincide with two major exhibitions of Watts’s work at The Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral. The 2009 Symposium will explore the life and work of G. F. Watts within the context of the Victorian age, taking into consideration the artistic, literary and spiritual movements influential at the time. It will be held on the 26-27 February 2009, the first day at The Guildhall Art Gallery and the second at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Speakers confirmed to date include:Mark Bills, Curator, Watts Gallery; Judith Bronkhurst, Art Historian, Courtauld Institute, London; Barbara Bryant, Consultant Curator and Co-Author G. F. Watts Victorian Visionary (Guildhall 2008-2009) and Author of G. F. Watts: Portraits – Fame & Beauty in Victorian Society (NPG 2004-2005); James Dewar, Administrator, Lincoln’s Inn; Veronica Franklin Gould,Author G. F. Watts: The Last Great Victorian (Yale University Press, 2004) and Curator of The Vision of G. F. Watts (Watts Gallery 2004); Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, Vice-Provost and Rector, Royal College of Art, Chairman, Arts Council of England; Leonée Ormond, Professor Emerita, King’s College, London; John Price, Historian, King’s College, London; David Stewart, Art Historian, UA Huntsville; Martin Warner, Treasurer, St Paul’s Cathedral.

To receive notification of further speakers, details of papers and booking information please register by visiting www.wattsgallery.org.uk or call 01483 810235.

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A Friend in Need is a Friend In Deed Chris Satterthwaite, Friends Champion

What is going to happen with the restoration of Watts Gallery is an extraordinary achievement. It has happened through a powerful campaign run by the Gallery which has enlisted friends in all sorts of ways and means from sponsors to donors to Patrons and finally through becoming an official Friend to the Gallery. As the target gets closer and closer it is Friends who can perhaps complete the fundraising target.

1000 new Friends is our target as with the generosity of a donor matching pound for pound the membership fees for new Friends joining, the last amounts of money for the Hope appeal could be raised through the local community organising a recruitment drive to communicate the benefits of becoming a Friend and the vital last fundraising boost this will give the Appeal.So what’s the best way of persuading your friends to become a Friend? (I’m assuming anyone reading this magazine is one already!) We’ve compiled the ten top reasons we believe make becoming a Friend of Watts Gallery worthwhile (right).

I’ve volunteered with my wife Teresa to try to gain the extra 1000 Friends we need, and any help you can give us by spreading the word and following people up to become a Friend will be of immediate and direct benefit to the Gallery. If you have been sent this Magazine as a Friend we have enclosed some Hope postcards for you to send to your friends and family to encourage them to join us.

10 Top Reasons to Join the Friends

1. Make history and be the first back into the Gallery in 20102. Generate a total of £55 in donations for the Gallery from your £20 annual fee*3. Enjoy exclusive events such as the recent Friends’ visit behind the scenes at the Tate store4. Absorb yourself in Watts Magazine 3 times a year5. Exhaust your free admission to the Gallery until restorations begin6. Experience hard-hat access to the restorations at key stages7. Help to establish a centre of learning for future generations8. Treasure the tranquillity and birdsong of the Arts & Crafts garden9. Cherish your stake in a wonderful restoration project with a plant in the new garden10. Support your national Gallery in the heart of a village(*Friends’ joining/renewing fees will be matched by the generosity of an anonymous donor until 2010 plus Gift Aid)

Three ways to become a Friend of Watts Gallery• Online at www.wattsgallery.org.uk• Call the Gallery on 01483 810235• Fill out a Friends leaflet at the Gallery or any local

tourist information point

Concert by Luard Trio Sunday 13 July, 6.30pm

Caroline Luard - Soprano, Valerie Wright - Mezzo-soprano and Julie Dance - Contralto/pianist. The Luard Trio’s repertoire ranges from Early Music, through to Oratorio, Opera, Musicals, Folk and Blues. The concert is in aid of the Harare Children’s Cancer Ward (the only children’s cancer ward left in Zimbabwe) and Watts Gallery’s Hope Appeal. To book tickets please call 01252 703946 or 01252 695925.

Big names to appear in film about G. F. Watts

We are pleased to announce that the artist Antony Gormley, the Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Sandy Nairne and the playwright Patrick Marber have all agreed to feature in a new short film being made about Watts Gallery and G. F. Watts. Watts’s Postmans’ Park memorial features in Marber’s Closer. We hope to be able to announce a very special presenter for the film in the next issue.

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Exhibitions at Watts Gallery and Touring

Watts Gallery

Watts Gallery: A Journey of Hope1 April - 28 September 2008Explores the history of Watts Gallery and how the Hope Appeal seeks to restore the building and conserve the collection for the next 100 years. The exhibition includes rarely seen drawings, paintings and other works.

Anna Readman: Suburban Reflections1 - 27 July 2008 Large-scale paintings by this year’s Fenton Arts Trust Artist in Residence at Watts Gallery.

Let’s Face It!27 July - 27 August 2008On Tour: Guildford Cathedral2 – 28 September 2008 The results of a community art project first shown at St. John the Evangelist in Farncombe. Admissions and Opening TimesTue to Sat 11-5pm, Sun and Bank Holidays 1-5pm. Closed Mondays. Adults 3 (£1 on Tuesdays).Children up to 16 FREEFriends of Watts Gallery FREE

Touring Exhibitions

Victorian Artists in Photographs: G. F. Watts and his WorldSelections from The Rob Dickins Collection

Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate26 April - 13 July 2008Forbes Gallery, Fifth Avenue, New York, USA7 November 2008 - 3 January 2009A touring exhibition by Watts Gallery The exhibition brings us a step closer to a distant age and offers us the opportunity to see the faces, homes and families of artists whose work is so popular. A chance to stand face to face with the eminent painters, poets and authors of the day including George Frederic Watts.

Peter Monkman: Changing FaceLewis Elton Gallery, University of Surrey14 - 27 July 2008Monkman questions the notion of a fixed identity of the face through painting portraits of people, young and old, from a variety of social and cultural backgrounds. Touring exhibition by Watts Gallery as part of the Guildford Festival.

Watts in the City

G. F. Watts: Victorian VisionaryGuildhall Art Gallery, London 11 November 2008 - 26 April 2009Mercer Art Gallery, HarrogateDates to be confirmedRetrospective of one of Britain’s greatest and most original artists. Drawn from the Watts Gallery collection, more than eighty paintings, drawings and sculptures the works will be returning to London for public display for the first time in 100 years.

G. F. Watts: Parables in PaintSt Paul’s Cathedral, London 1 December 2008 - 30 July 2009Watts did not possess a conventional religious faith yet he retained a sense of the profound importance of spirituality. The exhibition explores the religious and spiritual dimension of his art and the way that this underpinned his sense of social responsibility.

Two Major Works by Watts in the Nave of St Paul’s Cathedral1 December 2008 - April 2009Time, Death and Judgement and Peace and Goodwill will return to the Nave of the great cathedral some 100 years since they were first hung.

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“It is certainly my view that this place should have won

BBC Restoration”

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Ptolemy Dean was one of the presenters of BBC Restoration Village in 2006 when Watts Gallery came a close runner-up. He returned to the Gallery on the 1 April this year, 104 yearsto the day since the Gallery first opened to the public, to open the current exhibition ‘Watts Gallery: A Journey of Hope’. Here we reproduce his opening speech.

It’s an enormous pleasure for me to come back to this Gallery after our rather cold and slightly sad visit on a dismal day in March 2006. We stayed a night in the Guildford Travel Lodge, an unprepossessing and uninspiring place, by the A3 and the railway. We found nothing very nice for supper the night before. This is what the television doesn’t show you, the slight discomfort factor and the mean television budget for supper!

And then we came here, and how wonderful to go down a country lane off the A3 and find this absolutely wonderful quality of England. A small art gallery which contains the work of an artist of international quality, who collected his work together, created this place, tied to his vision, which was then left for his wife to maintain through the dark years up to the 30s and then maintained by two curators, including the wonderful character with sideburns many of you will remember.

There is something about a place like this that gets under the skin. It’s not just that there’s a charming little café on the left hand side where there’s a lovely woman who will serve you homemade cake and if you say to her very nicely “Is it possible to have cream?”, she might just oblige. And it’s not also that they sell eggs at the front desk. What other wonderful Gallery sells eggs, free range of course, at the front desk?

No it’s beyond that. There is something very special about this place. It is something that is unique, it is something that would not be found in France or in Germany or in any of our other lovely European partners, as we are now encouraged to believe. It is something quintessentially English, and it is also very English that you have all shown up tonight. You’ve all come, you’ve all gathered, and I understand you have raised 3. something million so that the HLF has had to cough up 4 million.

The only disappointment I might say is that the voters on our television programme, despite our valiant efforts in the freezing cold to try and extol the virtues of this place, didn’t vote for it as the winner. Because that was certainly my view, that this place should have won BBC Restoration for the third series. I know I’m not allowed to say that, but as there is going to be no further Restoration programme beyond this point then I can lay my cards on the table and tell you that I was very sad that this place did not win.

But of course you have won, because runners up in the English tradition are always the underdog and the underdog is always supported.

So we must look around us at this place, and we must stop and think about this place as it is now. It has a quality about it which is special, right down to the

Watts and his Charming Gallery! Ptolemy Dean, Restoration Presenter and Architect

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Humbrol gold paint that is peeling from the ceiling, the Heath Robinson chained up spotlights and the original gasoline light that is down there.

And I have to say that for the first half an hour of my visit this evening, I went into the curator’s office and that part of the building is not open to the public, but as far as I’m concerned it should be. It is the most wonderful microcosm of how Surrey, at that amazing period in the Arts & Crafts movement, led the world in terms of style in creating the Arts & Crafts. If you stand in that office, and you look under the beams, under the layers of nicotine and the leaded light windows, at the enchanting built-in cupboards on the right hand side, one of which says ‘Give Women the Vote’ – there is something very special about that and it is very important to remember Surrey’s role; this was the period of Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin

Lutyens, of all these incredible houses that were built in this area. This is when Surrey led the world and this Gallery leads the world at that point and I think that it’s very, very important that in your restoration works, which I obviously fully endorsed during the television programme, that you do not entirely lose the charm of the Heath Robinson. Do not allow that money to sweep away all the charm. Please preserve that quality that is English, but actually, we must stop the rain, we must stop the damp, we must stop the rising damp, we must cut the weeds but we mustn’t abolish the charm.

So in that spirit, and I’m sure Watts would agree, we should drink to Watts and his charming Gallery!

Ptolemy Dean’s book ‘Britain’s Buildings, Places and Spaces’ is available from Watts Gallery.

Ptolemy Dean, Watts Gallery, Compton, 2006

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Visitors on the Journey of HopeMark Bills, Curator, looks at commentsleft by visitors to the current exhibition

The Journey of Hope exhibition tells the story of Watts Gallery, tracing its creation and history, and ending with its future plans. It begins with two individuals, George Frederic and Mary Seton Watts, and continues with a whole body of trustees, staff, friends and volunteers who are shaping its course. The exhibition also allows visitors the opportunity to give their thoughts on Watts Gallery, as it is now and how it might be in the future, through their comments on post-it notes. Overwhelmingly positive, they are a reminder of what a special place Watts Gallery is and what it is like to experience it for the first time. There are also to be found a wide variety of other comments, one complaining that the gallery was too hot! As Curator I have become quite used to extreme internal weather conditions, including floods, cold, but rarely excess of heat. Chris and Edwin of Class C8 write “Better than Windsor Castle”.

One of the biggest issues raised regarding the future is caution and the fear that the restoration project might lose the character of the place. “Restore by all means – but please preserve the unique idiosyncrasies of this gem” reads one post-it, whilst the adjacent one emphatically agrees: “DITTO PLEASE NOTE!”

We know from the Gallery’s history that time has never stood still and that it has actually changed quite a lot over a century. Despite this it has managed to maintain a wonderful sense of uniqueness, something very different from other galleries of a similar size abundant in England. This uniqueness is exactly what we want to hold on to. There will be changes, a new skylight (as it had originally), changed wall colours, a new gallery and a sound roof. I hope that the drips from the ceiling are not what defines the character of the building. To move forward, we are looking back, and the rich colours that Watts himself chose will be re-installed, so it was good to read in a post-it: “A shame Watts’s original tapestry wall covering has been painted green. I would love to see it in its original form.”

You can add your thoughts and opinions on the Gallery, the exhibition and the restoration until 28 September when the Gallery will close for restoration to begin. Don’t miss this last chance to see the Gallery again for nearly two years.

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Why I Chose to Adopt Violet Lindsay Julian Spencer-Smith ‘As a local conservation studio based in Woking, it has been a great pleasure to be given the opportunity to conserve the portrait of Violet ensuring that her beauty will continue to be appreciated for years to come.’

In the above photograph the painting is having the facing paper, attached with a water soluble paste, removed. The facing paper protects the paint surface and while drying helps to pull the paint surface to a level. This painting was conserved by picture conservator Julian Spencer-Smith FBAPCR and the beautiful gold-leaf Watts replica frame was produced by frame maker Derek Tanous as part of our Adopt a Watts scheme. To find out more about the Adopt a Watts scheme please call the Appeal Co-ordinator on 01483 810235 or email appeal@wattsgallery.org.uk

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Violet Re-Vitalised Julia Dudkiewicz, Assistant Curator

One of the highlights of our collection and the exhibition Watts Gallery: A Journey of Hope, Watts’s beautiful portrait Violet Lindsay (1879) has been expertly brought back to its former glory by picture conservator Julian Spencer-Smith FBAPCR as a generous contribution to our Adopt a Watts Scheme.

Violet Lindsay was a talented artist as well as a society beauty and was portrayed by many distinguished artists including G. F. Watts, who had known the members of the Lindsay family well, and came to know Violet through her father Charles Lindsay and her great uncle Sir Coutts Lindsay, the owner of the avant-garde Grosvenor Gallery.

Watts painted four different portraits of her between 1879 and 1881 in pursuit of her beauty. Violet’s striking features even captivated Queen Victoria, who asked to paint her after they first met. This unfinished painting by Watts became a study for another finished portrait as Colonel Lindsay, overwhelmed by its beauty, begged Watts not to carry it any further.

Marion Margaret Violet Lindsay, later Marchioness of Granby and Duchess of Rutland (1856-1937), developed an interest in art at an early age during a long visit to Italy. A portrait painter, watercolourist, draughtsman and sculptor, Violet was at the peak of her powers between 1879 and 1893. Having frequently exhibited at the Grosvenor and New Galleries, Violet won the high regard of many French artists, especially Redon. Watts Gallery owns a fine drawing of Ellen Terry by Violet, which reflects her interest in the theatre. Violet was an important part of the nineteenth-century cultural scene as a member of the ‘Souls’, a late-Victorian high society clique of intellectuals associated with Aestheticism, noted for

its artistic and intellectual interests including playing scrabble in foreign languages!

The recent conservation of Violet Lindsay has restored her beauty to its former glory. The conservator Julian thus explains the extensive treatment of this work:

‘The canvas was dirty but never received the essential protective coat of varnish. Consequently, the paint was not sufficiently strong in its binding and had started to deteriorate, which made the surface cleaning challenging as we had to ensure that no paint would be removed in the process. Dirt had ingrained into the crevices of the cracks on the face, and the paint around the cracks was seriously cupped (raised) which enhanced the impression of cracks. We successfully removed the dirt and relined the original canvas with the traditional composition glue method, which remedied the cupping of the paint and brought back the original smoothness of the face surface. Finally, we also retouched some dark marks and canvas tops and applied coats of varnish to the canvas to preserve it for the future.’

A complex conservation programme of our extensive collection has been introduced as an integral part of the Hope Restoration Project. Comprising over 2000 objects including oil paintings, sculptures, works on paper, photographs, ceramics, ephemera and archival material, the legacy of G. F. Watts and Mary Seton Watts will be preserved for future generations. Specialist conservation treatments conducted by leading experts through the vital support of the Adopt a Watts Scheme address our immediate and long-term conservation needs.

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G. K . Chesterton on G. F. WattsMark Bills, Curator, introduces an excerpt from a new book compiled from Chesterton’s writings

I have always admired G. K. Chesterton’s turn of phrase and his ability to make the profoundest of thoughts deceptively simple. “He writes,” Kingsley Amis noted “with an energy and humour that remain fresh even when his subject has become faded with time.” Chesterton writes with that same humour and energy in his book on G. F. Watts, although it was written, not at a time when Watts’s reputation was fading, but when it was at its brightest in the last year of the artist’s life. In his youth Chesterton had aspired to be an artist, studying at the Slade between 1892 and 1895, and despite not following this path he continued to express his joy of the visual world through his writing. G. F. Watts was the perfect subject for his prose, a painter who described great ideas through a distinct visual language. It is by no means a typical artist’s monograph, but rather the insightful thoughts of an admirer who really succeeds in getting to the point of Watts’s art as he himself understood it.

George Frederic Watts was born on 23 February 1817. His whole rise and career synchronizes roughly with the rise and career of the nineteenth century. As a rule, no doubt, such chronological parallels are peculiarly fanciful and unmeaning. Nothing can be imagined more idle, in a general way, than talking about a century as if it were some kind of animal with a head and tail, instead of an arbitrary length cut from an unending scroll. Nor is it less erroneous to assume that even if a period be definitely vital or disturbing, art must be a mirror of it; the greatest political storm flutters only a fringe of humanity; poets, like bricklayers, work on through a century of wars, and Bewick’s birds, to take an instance, have the air of persons unaffected by the French Revolution. But in the case of Watts there are two circumstances which render the dates relevant. The first is that the nineteenth century was self-conscious, believed itself to be an idea and an atmosphere, and changed its name from a chronological almost to a philosophical term. I do not know whether all centuries do this or whether an advanced and progressive organ called ‘The Eleventh Century’ was ever in contemplation in the dawn of the Middle Ages. But with us it is clear that a certain spirit was rightly or wrongly associated with the late century and that it called up images and thoughts like any historic or ritual date, like the Fourth of July or the First of April. What these images and thoughts were we shall be obliged in a few minutes and in the interests of the subject to inquire. But this is the first circumstance which renders the period important; and the second is that it has always been so regarded by Watts himself. He, more than any other modern man, more than politicians who thundered on platforms or financiers who captured continents, has sought in the midst of his quiet and hidden life to mirror his age. He was born in the white G. F. Watts, Wounded Heron, 1837

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and austere dawn of that great reforming century, and he has lingered after its grey and doubtful close. He is above all things a typical figure, a survival of the nineteenth century.

It will appear to many a somewhat grotesque matter to talk about a period in which most of us were born and which has only been dead a year or two, as if it were a primal Babylonian empire of which only a few columns are left crumbling in the desert. And yet such is, in spirit, the fact. There is no more remarkable psychological element in history than the way in which a period can suddenly become unintelligible. To the early Victorian period we have in a moment lost the key: the Crystal Palace is the temple of a forgotten creed. The thing always happens sharply: a whisper runs through the salons, Mr Max Beerbohm waves a wand and a whole generation of great men and great achievement suddenly looks mildewed and unmeaning. We see precisely the same thing in that other great reaction towards art and the vanities, the Restoration of Charles II. In that hour both the great schools of faith and valour which had seemed either angels or devils to all men: the dreams of Strafford and the great High Churchmen on the one hand; the Moslem frenzy of the English Commons, the worship of the English law upon the other; both seemed distant and ridiculous. The new Cavalier despised the old Cavalier even more than he despised the Roundhead. The last stand of English chivalry dwindled sharply to the solitary figure of the absurd old country gentleman drinking wine out of an absurd old flagon. The great roar of Roundhead psalms which cried out that the God of Battles was loose in English meadows shrank to a single snuffle. The new and polite age saw the old and serious one exactly as we see the early Victorian era: they saw it, that is to say, not as splendid, not as disastrous, not as fruitful, not as infamous, not as good or bad, but simply as ugly. Just as we can see nothing about Lord Shaftesbury but his hat, they could see nothing about Cromwell but his nose. There is no doubt of the shock and sharpness of the silent transition. The only difference is that accordingly as we think of man and his nature, according to our deepest intuitions about things, we shall see in the Restoration and the fin de siècle philosophy a man waking from a turbid and pompous dream, or a man hurled from heaven and the wars of the angels.

G. F. Watts is so deeply committed to, and so unalterably steeped in, this early Victorian seriousness and air of dealing with great matters, that unless we sharply apprehend that spirit, and its difference from our own, we shall misunderstand his work from the outset. Splendid as is the art of Watts technically or obviously considered, we shall yet find much in it to perplex and betray us, unless we understand his original theory and intention, a theory and intention dyed deeply with the colours of a great period which is gone. The great technical inequalities of his work, its bursts of stupendous simplicity in colour and design, its daring failures, its strange symbolical portraits, all will mislead or bewilder if we have not the thread of intention. In order to hold that, we must hold something which runs through and supports, as a string supports jewels, all the wars and treaties and reforms of the nineteenth century.

This book has been brought about by the generosity of Robert and Anna Dalrymple. Robert is a direct descendant of Sophia Dalrymple and Anna is a descendant of Julia Margaret Cameron, two of the redoubtable Pattle sisters, who played such an important part in Watts’s life. It is priced at £4.95 and is available from the Gallery shop, or at www.wattsgallery.org.uk

G . K . C H E S T E R T O N O NG . F. W A T T S

Room for another pic here if you wantSelf-portrait?

A barcode ISBN might be useful if you are supplying museum shops in the US etc.

Back flap

One para biogs of GF and GK?Or is that just silly?

General blurb on front flap?

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Out of Print Books on G. F. WattsAndrew Churchill, Marketing Manager

G. K. Chesterton wrote his book on Watts towards the end of the artist’s life and had the benefit of meeting him. Through this he is able to offer insights not afforded to other writers. However the previous Curators of Watts Gallery have themselves written on the artist and certainly their proximity to the works of the artist have afforded them a deep knowledge of the artist. Rowland Alston who was Curator from 1931 to 1958 wrote catalogue entries for most of the important works held at Watts Gallery in his book ‘The Mind and Work of G F Watts’. As such this book is an informative guide to the collections (from £24.95).

His successor at the Gallery was Wilfrid Blunt. Blunt used his time at Watts Gallery to write many book on a bewilderingly wide range of subjects from King Ludvig to Persian art but also took the time to write his affectionate (not, as some have suggested, mocking) biography ‘England’s Michelangelo’. Certainly Blunt has little patience for the arch seriousness of many Victorians and takes the opportunity to poke gentle fun at some of their more grandiose statements but as a light, enjoyable and informative introduction to the artist, it can’t be beaten. We stock hardbacks from £29.95 and paperbacks which include an introduction by Roy Strong for £15.

Mary Watts’s ‘Annals of An Artist’s Life’ is an exhaustive three volume affair but for proximity to the actual thoughts of the artist, Watts’s second wife Mary provides as close a portrait as perhaps is possible. It should be noted though that she was the ultimate defender of her husband’s work and may have been a little over judicious in the editing of some parts of his life. It is illustrated with quite stunning reproductions of his works and photographs which make the volumes worth owning in their own right (from £59).

There are of course a number of books still in print on Watts including that of Blunt’s successor as Curator, Richard Jefferies offering his ‘Personal View’ on Watts (£4.95), Barbara Bryant’s ‘G F Watts Portraits’ (£20) and of course the most complete study of recent years, Veronica Franklin Gould’s ‘The Last Great Victorian’ (£35).

There are new books on Watts planned for later this year so get reading the back catalogue this summer. All fascinating views on a fascinating artist. Come in to the Gallery or visit the shop at our website. www.wattsgallery.org.uk

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Anna Readman’s artistic journey originally started with an interest in photorealism, subsequently abandoned for conceptual work involving living plants on the theme of the man-made as a force restricting nature. In her most recent series of landscapes which form the focus of our present exhibition ‘Suburban Reflections’, Readman returns to photorealism as a starting point for a deeper exploration of a similar theme: man’s intervention with the natural environment as inevitable part of contemporary Western lifestyle fuelled by consumerism, and its effects on human condition. In her striking large-scale distorted views of shop fronts

and supermarket car parks, fast-food chains and snack wagons, cheap hotels and bus stops, Readman creates unnerving multiple narratives of sadness. The artist comments on her practice: ‘The images derive from my interest in the mundane and the stereotypically English surroundings which form a backdrop to our everyday life. I attempt to make emphatic statements about Western society by capturing moments from our lives …. My paintings convey desolation, solitude and desertion and are deliberately emptied of people allowing the settings to speak for themselves.’

Anna Readman: Suburban Reflections The Fenton Arts Trust Artist in Residence 2007/08Julia Dudkiewicz, Assistant Curator

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Notably, Readman’s uninhabited spaces do signal human presence. The pink pram left in haste outside an off-licence store with the door wide open conveys the physical presence of the missing parent in Bargain Booze (2007), while the open counter of the snack wagon with empty chairs and dripping ketchup evoke the regulars to Gaddard’s burger van in Fast Food (2007). The empty trolleys in the supermarket car park signify the repetitive quality of everyday existence in Tesco’s (2007) while the red cones and street barriers outside the bus stop evoke the daily queuing and traffic jams on the way to work (Cones, 2007). All these narratives convey the anonymity, impersonality, repetitiveness, and mediocrity of modern existence and the fast pace of life dictated by consumerism.

Readman’s conscious influences include Edward Hopper, George Shaw, and Gerhardt Richter, although her work also shows an affinity with the work of the Camden Town Group, and particularly Walter Sickert’s

depictions of shop fronts, tube stations and residential areas. Only one of the works in the series is an idyllic depiction of modern suburban life, cherishing the personal nature of a small community through an old fashioned second-hand furniture shop on the corner of a residential area. In Malcolm’s (2007), Readman depicts a quaint vision of old England with a sense of history where every piece of furniture stands for the continuity of the lives of its previous owners while the open door, instead of a sense of desolation, evokes the absent figure of the friendly proprietor.

Anna Readman is The Fenton Arts Trust Artist in Residence 2007/08. The exhibition runs 1-27 July.

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Some Light In The Dull Grey Prison World HMP Send and The Big Issue Workshops

G. F. Watts, Time Death and Judgement, 1884

The Big Issue Workshops for six women at Send Prison in April and May 2008 was a new initiative for Watts Gallery and has successfully taken G. F. Watts’s ethos of ‘Art for All’ to a new audience.

Sandy Curry, Project LeaderThe Fenton Arts Trust Artist in Residence at Watts Gallery 2006-07‘I have been impressed and inspired at how the participants rose to the challenge to create a body of work to exhibit, a daunting task for any artist! They have shown courage in their willingness to address subjects that expose their inner most thoughts or feelings and have been bold in their attempt to express their inner voice. The support they showed to each other, openly offering feed back and understanding, has given us all a creative dialogue which has been very rewarding for me. This project has had a big impact on the prisoners’ self-esteem, and with encouragement and the opportunity to exhibit their work can only lead them to positive new directions in life.’

Alicia Jenkins - Participant‘I have been studying art in prison for a few years now which, at times, can be a solitary experience; especially if you are doing a ‘distance learning’ course like I am – where the only contact you have with your tutor, is via the post! To be given the opportunity to join in with the Watts Gallery art project has been a very enjoyable and worthwhile experience for a number of reasons.I found that by looking at images of the art and sculpture that George Frederic Watts did, as well as being able to paint on canvas for the first time in my life, has been really inspiring for me. The ‘emotions’ that are captured in the expression of the eyes – as well as the body language of the people that Watts painted, gave me fresh ideas of what I wanted to draw and paint in order to share my thoughts, feelings and style of art with others.

The artist Sandy and the other ladies who work at Watts Gallery who have shared the benefits of their experience with all of us at HMP Send have been really encouraging and made me feel ‘special’ once

again, which is something to be treasured, as it doesn’t happen that often in prison as a rule. It also shows me that there are people ‘out there’ who care enough about people in prison to give us an opportunity to prove that we can respond favourably if given some encouragement and financial backing to show what we are capable of producing. To the sponsors and all the people at Watts Gallery, who have given me the opportunity to participate in such an excellent art project, I would like to say a heartfelt thank you.’

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Siwan - Participant‘When I started this project and saw the quality of Watts and Sandy’s work I thought ‘oh shit, I’m in the wrong place – I can never produce work like that’. In the first session we all did a collage which I was very slow at and hardly covered half the paper.

Then when it came to finding something to paint it was panic stations all over again as I desperately looked around for inspiration. I based my picture on an image from a magazine and was really pleased with the end

product. Most of the work was done in my cell which was awkward but still very enjoyable, relaxing and sometimes stressful! I’m very grateful to Sandy and all at Watts Gallery for giving us their time, patience, materials and this great opportunity to have our work displayed and hopefully enjoyed! Thanks.’

Clare Barstow - Participant‘I have thoroughly enjoyed working on the Watts Gallery art project. It has been a fantastic experience meeting such wonderful, talented, caring and motivational people who have worked so hard to ensure that I have had all the creative tools and atmosphere to inspire me to produce some enlightening pieces of artwork. It has been an entertaining and yet productive experience and I feel privileged to have been chosen to take part in this ground-breaking scheme which has brought some light into the dull grey prison world. I am certain that Watts the artist, would have been delighted to see such a brilliant scheme taking place under the auspices of the Gallery he set up. From the initial chat through to developing the work and leading onto the finished pieces, I have felt supported and encouraged throughout. It has been great being part of such a tremendous team of women and I feel that women’s creative voices, which have been silenced for so long, are at last able to speak out and be heard.

The themes covered by Watts and alluded to in our work are issues that face us all at one stage or another in our lives and through these, are able to transcend the ordinary to produce extraordinary pieces of work. Such a positive experience opportunity can only motivate us further and spill over to other areas of our lives as our sensations become tuned in to the creative buzz. I hope this is the first of many opportunities to work with the Watts Gallery team and I wish to thank them and all those who have funded the project for allowing us the chance to be part of such a brilliant scheme.’

The Big Issue Workshops are supported by The KMPG Foundation, The Fenton Arts Trust and Lloyds TSB Foundation.

Clare Barstow, Suffocation, Fear and Rejection (detail), 2008

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Winsor & Newton Watts Painting Prize 2008and Artist in Residence 2008/09 Helen Hienkens-Lewis, Head of Learning

Congratulations to Thomas Hurley, winner of the 2008 Winsor & Newton Watts Painting Prize. The prize has been awarded annually to an outstanding graduate of the University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham, since its launch in the Watts Centenary year 2004. The prize is a tribute to G. F. Watts’s own faith in the significance of artistic development and ‘art for all’ as well as the progressive ideas of his wife Mary Seton Watts, a pioneering community artist. Supported by Watts’s own suppliers of artistic materials, the award is granted to artists with innovative approaches to painting techniques, combining Watts’s tendency towards abstraction with a strong social conscience. The prize comprises a £500 voucher for Winsor & Newton painting materials.

Congratulations also to Nathalie Roset, winner of the Artist in Residence at Watts Gallery 2008 - 2009. For the first time the Gallery has awarded the residency to a ceramic artist. Nathalie’s work for her degree show was inspired by Victorian chimney sweeps and chimney pots and as well as working in ceramics she has a background in graphics. During her residency, starting in Autumn 2008, Nathalie will be leading six art workshops as part of the Gallery’s outreach programme A Gallery Without Walls. Nathalie will be working on a new body of work inspired by Watts Gallery and the Watts Chapel, which will culminate with an exhibition of her work at the Lewis Elton Gallery next year.

Right: Seascape

Oil on canvas. 2008

Below: Mauritius Number: 1

Oil on canvas 2008

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2008 has seen the start of The Big Issue project, an exciting partnership between Watts Gallery and the staff and young people of Surrey Youth Justice Service.

Watts Gallery welcomed young people between the ages of 13-17 and introduced them to some of the art and history in their county. They had the opportunity to work alongside artists to produce works of art in a variety of media and in the relaxing and fascinating environment of a working gallery. For many of the young people this was a new experience.

These benefits include developing their art skills with one-to-one guidance of staff and artists, some have gone on to use this in their GCSE art work or to help inform their GCSE choices. Self-esteem has been raised as they made discoveries, worked with new materials and people and gained in confidence. They responded well to being shown how to use and consequently trusted with equipment such as cameras

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The Big Issue Workshops with the Surrey Youth Justice Service Leanne Grindall

The impressive sculptures by Watts at the Gallery inspired many of the participants to take unusual photos which then became an integral part of their artwork. It was exciting for them to experience this fusing of the traditional and modern and for Youth Justice Service staff to experiment with new ways of teaching, thinking and learning.

The combination of a welcoming environment and the support of staff and artists has truly enabled young people in Surrey to identify untapped potential and develop their skills. Hopefully in the future they will return to the Gallery independently and enjoy other cultural activities available to them.

The Art for All Learning programme receives support from The Man Group Charitable Trust and the Peter Harrison Foundation.

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Friends’ Visits In March the Friends visited Eton College. We were fortunate to be shown around the College by well informed guides who, taking us to various parts of the buildings, including the chapel, brought to life the history of the College and made sense of an institution both famous and misunderstood. Mark Bills gave an insightful talk about Sir Galahad, presented to the College by G. F. Watts, a drawing of which is at Watts Gallery. By contrast in May we stayed in Compton when, thanks to the generosity of Mr & Mrs Gordon Rautenbach and Mr & Mrs John Waterfall, we were able to visit Limnerslease and the Watts’s Kiln respectively. It is reassuring to know that both buildings, so important in the story of G. F. and Mary Watts, are in such caring hands.

The last Friends’ Visit in 2008 will be on Monday, 8 December when Friends will have the opportunity to see the Watts mosaic The Doom at St James the Less, Pimlico, in the morning and in the afternoon take a tour of St Paul’s Cathedral, finishing with the Watts exhibition in the Crypt. As always Mark Bills, Curator, will accompany the visit to answer questions. Full details will be in the next issue of Watts Magazine.

Anne VardonFriends Events Co-ordinator

Events at Watts Gallery

Gallery TalkMary WondrauschWednesday 16 July 2008, 6pm£5

Mary Wondrausch is a internationally celebrated artist whose work ranges from Elizabethan slipware inspired pieces to contemporary images inspired by her love of natural forms, often from her own garden. She has had a love for Watts Gallery since settling in Compton in the 1950s. She will show slides of her earlier work as well as a display of her more recent work. She will be signing copies of her book Brickfields. See pg 34 for an interview with her.

Curator’s Talk Looking at G. F. Watts: Portraits of the Artist Thursday 28 August, 7.30pm£5

Whether in painting, sculpture or photography, images of G. F. Watts are remarkably revealing. From the early self-portrait at the age of 17 to the photograph on his deathbed, they strongly reflect his state of mind and influences at the time that they were created. This lecture by Mark Bills will consider the life and art of Watts through the his portraits and self-portraits.

Family Art Workshops Create a Friendly Gargoyle Monday 4 August 10.30 – 12.00 or 1.30 – 3.00

Create a design inspired by Medieval gargoyles and the angels guarding over the Watts Chapel and transform your design into your own clay gargoyle with a friendly character!

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Make a Story Book Monday 11 August10.30 – 12.00 or 1.30 – 3.00

Make up your own modern day story inspired by paintings in the collection and turn it into a book which will include a photo of yourself to make your story even more personal. Children will start the workshop by looking at selected paintings, preparing their story and using paint and craft materials to create their hand made book.

Make a Panoramic Landscape Painting Monday 18 August10.30 – 12.00 or 1.30 – 3.00

We will learn about colour mixing, creating textures, seasons and space by looking at the landscape paintings of G. F. Watts and the surrounding Compton countryside, you will then be inspired to make your very own imaginary panoramic landscape in paint.

£5 per child, accompanying adults free. Children need to be accompanied at all times when at the Gallery. For ages 5-10.

Price No. Cost

Mary Wondrausch £5 ___ ___Wed 16 July Looking at G. F. Watts £5 ___ ___Thur 28 August

Friendly Gargolye £5 ___ ___Mon 4 August, 10.30am

Friendly Gargolye £5 ___ ___Mon 4 August, 1.30pm

Make a Story Book £5 ___ ___Mon 11 August, 10.30am

Make a Story Book £5 ___ ___Mon 11 August, 1.30pm

Panoramic Landscape £5 ___ ___Mon 18 August, 10.30am

Panoramic Landscape £5 ___ ___Mon 18 August, 1.30pm

A Still Life in £95 ___ ___Dry Pastel Sat 19 - Sun 20 July

Creative Techniques £95 ___ ___with OilsSat 9 - Sun 10 Aug

Total ___ ___

Please fill in your personal details and payment instructionsover the page.

Booking Form

Adult Art CoursesThis is the sixth series of our popular art courses, delivered by excellent teachers in the wonderful setting of Watts Gallery. Places are limited to 12 per course. The minimum age is 16. Participants should bring their own materials, more information will be provided with the tickets. £95 per course.

A Still Life in Dry Pastel Saturday 19 to Sunday 20 July 2008, 10am to 4.30pmTeacher: Sheila CorbyLevel: All levels and beginners welcome

Have fun with pastels creating a still life. Working from a tabletop arrangement of fabric, pottery, flowers and fruit, explore colour theory and pastel techniques.

Creative Techniques with OilsSaturday 9 to Sunday 10 August 2008, 10am to 4.30pmTeacher: Anna Readman Level: All levels.

Experiment with mark making and different ways of applying oil paint to canvas or board. Anna Readman will introduce her innovative approaches to using oil paint and will make links with the late works of G. F. Watts. Inspiration will be taken from unexpected localities and the surroundings of Watts Gallery.

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Title

Name

Address

Postcode

Telephone

Children’s Name/s and age

Visa Mastercard

Name of Card Holder

Credit Card Number

Valid From Exprires End

Issue Number CVN*

* last 3 digits of the number on the signature strip

Signature

Cheques payable to: Watts Gallery

Please send your booking form to: Events, Watts Gallery, Down Lane, Compton,Surrey GU3 1DQ

Stanford’s Symphony No. 6 ‘In Honour of G. F. Watts’ Mark Bills, Curator

Booking Form

Symphony No. 6 ‘In honour of the life-work of a great artist: George Frederic Watts’Symphony No. 3 ‘Irish’

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra - David Lloyd-Jones Sir Charles Villiers STANFORD

Stanford Cover Design.indd 1 15/5/08 14:28:16

Not many people can claim a symphony devoted to them and G. F. Watts is one of the few that has the honour. Written in the spring of 1905, shortly after the artist’s death, the symphony was premiered in London the following year. After its first performance it was performed only once more before being almost entirely ignored for nearly 80 years. The work was revived recently and a recording is now available on the low price Naxos label, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

It is a tribute both to Watts’s standing as an artist as well as the wide influence that he commanded that the symphony was written at all. Edwardian in character, the work is in turn striking and elegiac.

...a beautiful and noble melodic line

The first movement, Allegro con brio, moves quickly with rhythmic purpose in its theme. The second, possibly the most lyrical and Wattsian of the symphony, has a beautiful and noble melodic line that reaches a sustained climax. A short third movement Scherzo, gives way to the Finale which is atmospheric and solemn, reminiscent of Watts in later life. Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) was an Irish composer and was one of the most important figures of his day. Tennyson requested Stanford to compose incidental music for his poetic drama, Queen Mary, first performed in 1876. In 1883 he was appointed Professor of Composition and Orchestral Playing at the newly opened Royal College of Music. Whilst there he was enormously influential in the development of British music, teaching amongst others, Arthur Bliss, Rutland Boughton, Frank Bridge, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, Herbert Howells, Gustav Holst, John Ireland, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Stanford wrote symphonic works, string quartets (the fifth in 1908 dedicated to Joseph Joachim), opera and perhaps most famously Church music.

Available from Watts Gallery with an exclusive cover. Priced £6.99. Call 01483 810235 or visit the shop at www.wattsgallery.org.uk

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Leighton House was the home of Frederic, Lord Leighton(1830—1896) and one of the most remarkable buildings

of the 19th century. Built to designs by George Aitchison,the house was extended and embellished over the next30 years to create a private palace of art. The Arab Hall

houses Leighton’s priceless collection of over 1,000Syrian tiles and important works by Leighton and his

contemporaries are displayed in the house.

Leighton House Museum12 Holland Park Road, London W14 8LZ

020 7602 3316

museums@rbkc.gov.uk www.leightonhouse.co.ukOpen daily 11am to 5.30pm, closed on Tuesdays

Adult £3, Concession £1

Regrettably wheelchair access is not possible

Free guided tours every Wednesday and Thursday at2.30pm. The house is available for hire in the evenings.

Please call 020 7603 1123

Leighton House Museum

Leighton House Ads:LH Watts Magazine 6/6/08 16:24 Page 1

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and a wide range of opera holidays for independent travellers.

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aboard Fred. Olsen’s Black Watch - Round Britain in May and to the Canary Islands in November

To make a booking or request a brochure please call us on 020 7593 2284www.kirkerholidays.com

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An Artist’s Persepective on Watts Gallery Mary Wondrausch

The potter Mary Wondrausch, OBE has been living in Compton at Brickfields, a former brickyard, since 1955. She will be giving a talk on her life and work on the 16 July.

I’ve always gone into Watts Gallery everytime anyone came to stay and because of my childhood in London I loved Physical Energy, but when I first moved to Compton and visited Watts Gallery I wasn’t a potter and when you are a potter you look at things in a very practical kind of way. I am afraid we always laughed at Watts’s The First Oyster. I think it took me quite some time to realise what a great painter Watts was and my interest in Lord Leighton and visits to Leighton House helped me appreciate Watts’s art. I think I was very intrigued and confused about Watts as a man and I would be interested in reading his letters, including the recently acquired collection of correspondence with his contemporaries and his second wife Mary.

I respect the idea of Mary Watts’s co-operative of artisans and think it is wonderful. I love the large Compton garden pots but I am not that keen on the twiddly smaller bits, but really what interests me is the philosophy of the time. I think Mary must have been a very interesting women who followed William Morris’s belief in the hand-made rather than the factory produced. I am also a passionate admirer of Ruskin.

I enjoyed enormously the recent exhibition at Watts Gallery ‘Victorian Artists in Photographs’ and I do find the Gallery more interesting now with all the exciting new developments. Before it was charming and rustic,

and very dominated by the personalities of the former curators, whereas now it is more seriously directed towards G. F. Watts himself with more emphasis on the art. Watts was painting at the same time as the

Impressionists and it is the Impressionists that are my love particularly Bonnard and his depiction of light. Some of Watts’s landscapes from the collection are painted more freely in a similar style.

At the end of each day I am painting and then sitting down having serious food and drinking serious wine. My day finishes very early because most people at my age would have a kip in the afternoon. I also read in the evenings. I have just finished reading a book on Degas and was surprised to find out that he never got married. I looked at many of his works because one

too easily makes an over-simplistic view of The Ballet Dancer but he was a great painter.

These days I haven’t got any leisure time to make pottery pieces for myself but I sometimes make traditional kitchen plates for my friends and myself if I break anything. If you asked any potter about recreational work, it would be all about making what we love and what we believe in and what we use ourselves. Much of my work is to commission and made to celebrate special occasions.

My talk will be about my work and influences and how bizarre it is that I bought Brickfields without realising that I would become a potter twenty years later. Interview by Helen Hienkens-Lewis and Julia Dudkiewicz See page 30 to book for the talk.

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Painters

David Brayne RWS • Sheila Edwards • Michael Frith • Judith Gardner RBA Jeannette Hayes PS • Andrew King ROI • Sophie Knight RWS • Andrew Lievesley

Michael McLellan RIBA • Paul Newland RWS NEAC • Susie Perring Norma Stephenson PS • Terry Stockbridge • Emma Taylor • Nicholas Verrall

Jackie Walker • Alan Waldie • Colin Wilson GAvA

SculptorsVeda Hallowes • Bill Harling • William Pye

Jane Silk • Diane Tims • Gilbert Whyman

www.guildfordarts.org.uk Tel: 01483 575125

Sponsored by

Yvonne Arnaud Art 2008The Mill Studio, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Millbrook, Guildford, GU1 3UX

Guildford Arts present the 13th Annual Exhibition9 – 24 July 2008

Open Mondays to Saturdays 10am – 7.30pm(until 4.15pm on 9 July and 6pm on 10 July and 21–24 July)

Hotel by Nicholas Verrall

Victorian and Traditionalist Pictures

Auction5 June 2008

LondonKing StreetVictorian Pictures

EnquiriesPeter BrownHead of Salepbrown@christies.com020 7389 2435

ViewingsTuesday 27 May 4.00 pm – 8.00 pm

Wednesday 28 May9.00 am – 4.30 pm

Thursday 29 may9.00 am – 4.30 pm

Friday 30 May9.00 am – 4.30 pm

Sunday 1 June2.00 pm – 5.00 pm

Monday 2 June 9.00 am – 4.30 pm

Tuesday 3 June9.00 am – 8.00 pm

Wednesday 4 June9.00 am – 4.30 pm

GEORGE FREDERIC WATTS, O.M., R.A. (1817-1904)Helen Rose Huthoil on canvas26 x 21 in. (66 x 53.3 cm.)

£15,000 - 25,000

EnquiriesKing StreetPeter Brownpbrown@christies.com+44 (0)20 7389 2435

South KensingtonJane Oakleyjoakley@christies.com+44 (0)20 7752 3129

New YorkJane Turnerjturner@christies.com

Sales CalendarVictorian & Traditionalist PicturesSouth Kensington 3 September 2008

Victorian & Traditionalist PicturesKing Street11 December 2008

Leading the Field: Victorian &Traditionalist Pictures

From Pre-Raphaelitism and Neo-Classicism to

Realism and British Impressionism, Christie’s

Victorian & Traditionalist Pictures department

has been the market leader in this category for

over a decade.

Our Victorian & Traditionalist team would be

delighted to assist with any questions you may

have.We look forward to hearing from you.

GEORGE FREDERIC WATTS, O.M., R.A. (1817-1904)

Haystacks (Study on Brighton Downs)oil on canvas131⁄2 x 26 in. (34.3 x 66 cm.)

Sold for £17,327.50, London, King Street, 11 June 2002

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