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Lot Essay
G. F. WATTS IS ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE AND VERSATILE FIGURES IN VICTORIAN ART. DURING HIS LONG CAREER OF SOME SEVENTY YEARS, HE MADE MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO HISTORY PAINTING, THE MURAL REVIVAL, PORTRAITURE, LANDSCAPE, HIGH VICTORIAN CLASSICISM, SYMBOLISM, AND THE NEW SCULPTURE. TO PUT THIS IN DIFFERENT WORDS, NO-ONE DID MORE TO BRIDGE THE ENORMOUS GAP BETWEEN THE AGE IF HAYDON AND ETTY AND THE DAWN OF MODERNISM. HE IS NOT AN EASY ARTIST; THE MORAL ALLEGORIES BY WHICH HE SET SUCH STORE HAVE PROVED PARTICULARLY DIFFICULT FOR A TWENTIETH-CENTURY AUDIENCE. BUT TASTE SEEMS TO BE CHANGING. HE WAS WELL REPRESENTED IN THE EXHIBITION THE AGE OF ROSSETTI, BURNE-JONES AND WATTS: SYMBOLISM IN BRITAIN 1860-1910, MOUNTED AT THE TATE GALLERY LAST YEAR, AND FOR MANY HE EMERGED AS THE STAR OF THE SHOW. THE OBJECT OF THE EXHIBITION WAS TO PLACE BRITISH SYMBOLISM IN A EUROPEAN CONTEXT, AND WATTS LENDS HIMSELF TO THIS TREATMENT. HIS WORK WAS WELL-KNOWN AND MUCH ADMIRED ON THE CONTINENT DURING HIS LIFETIME; IT EVEN MAKES AN APPEARANCE IN J. K. HUYSMANS' FAMOUS 'DECADENT' NOVEL. A REBOURS (1884).
THE COMPOSITION OF LOVE AND LIFE SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN EVOLVED BY SEPTEMBER 1882, AND THE PICTURE WAS PAINTED BETWEEN FEBRUARY AND JUNE 1884. THE THEME HAD ALREADY BEEN TREATED IN A POEM BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, BUT THE PAINTING REMAINS ONE OF WATTS' MOST CHARACTERISTIC PRODUCTIONS, AN ATTEMPT TO EXPRESS A GREAT MORAL TRUTH IN PICTORIAL TERMS. THE DESIGN, HE WROTE, 'HAS TO DO ONLY WITH THE PUREST ABSTRACTIONS', AND THE FIGURES ARE 'ONLY SYMBOLS'. HIS FRIEND AND BIOGRAPHER MRS RUSSELL BARRINGTON, WHO UNDOUBTEDLY DISCUSSED THE SUBJECT WITH THE ARTIST, ELABORATED HIS MEANING AS FOLLOWS:
LOVE IS REPRESENTED BY THE WINGED FIGURE OF A YOUTH, AND LIFE BY THAT OF A YOUNG GIRL, WHO, CLINGING TO LOVE, IS BEING GUIDED BY HIM OVER THE ROUGH PLACES OF A ROCKY PRECIPICE WHICH BOTH ARE ASCENDING TOGETHER. LOVE IS LEADING THE WAY, AND HELPING LIFE, BY HIS SUPPORT AND TENDERNESS, TO CLIMB THE DIFFICULT PATH - EMBLEMATIC OF THE STRUGGLING CONDITIONS WHICH, MORE OR LESS, ARE THE PORTION OF ALL HUMAN EXISTENCE. THE HALF-EXTENDED WINGS OF LOVE SHADE THE RAYS OF LIGHT FROM BEATING TOO FIERCELY ON THE DELICATE FIGURE OF LIFE. LOVE'S FOOTSTEPS CAN BE TRACED ON THE ROCKY ASCENT BY THE DAISY FLOWERS WHICH HAVE SPRUNG UP IN HIS TRACK. THE ATMOSPHERE OF THE PICTURE IS BATHED IN THE GOLD OF LIGHT AND THE BLUE OF SPACE. AS THE FIGURES ASCEND, THE AIR BECOMES MORE GOLDEN WITH LIGHT ... THE TRUTH WHICH THE ARTIST HAS TRIED TO EMBODY IN THIS PICTURE, IS THAT LOVE, IN ITS WIDEST, MOST UNIVERSAL SENSE - IN THE SENSE OF CHARITY, SYMPATHY, AND UNSELFISHNESS - RAISES LIFE UPWARD; THAT HUMANITY IS HELPED BY TENDER AID ON THE ONE HAND, AND BY TENDER TRUST ON THE OTHER.
OF ALL WATTS' PICTURES, LOVE AND LIFE HAS THE CLOSEST ASSOCIATION WITH AMERICA, ALTHOUGH THERE WAS AN ELEMENT OF TRAGI-COMEDY ABOUT ITS FORTUNES IN THAT COUNTRY. TO BEGIN WITH, ALL WENT WELL. WATTS INCLUDED IT IN THE EXHIBITION OF HIS WORK AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, NEW YORK, IN 1884. IT RECEIVED CRITICAL ACCLAIM, AND IN 1893, AFTER IT HAD BEEN SEEN AGAIN AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION IN CHICAGO, WATTS GAVE IT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, EXPRESSING A HOPE THAT IT WOULD BECOME THE NUCLEUS OF A NATIONAL COLLECTION. IT WAS ACCEPTED BY AN ACT OF CONGRESS IN 1894, AND PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND INTENDED TO HANG IT IN THE WHITE HOUSE. HOWEVER, THE NUDITY OF THE FIGURES IMMEDIATELY CAME UNDER ATTACK FROM MRS EMILY D. MARTIN, NATIONAL SUPERINTENDENT OF PURITY IN LITERATURE AND ART FOR THE WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERAMCE UNION OF THE UNITED STATES, AND IT WAS SENT TO THE CORCORAN GALLERY INSTEAD. WATTS, OF COURSE, WAS HORRIFIED THAT HIS IDEALISTIC INTENTIONS HAD BEEN SO MISCONSTRUED; AND INDEED NINE YEARS LATER (1902) THEODORE ROOSEVELT HAD THE PICTURE RETURNED TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND HUNG IN THE DINING-ROOM. MRS MARTIN THEN STRUCK AGAIN. THE PRESENCE OF THIS 'VULGAR NUDE PAINTING', REPRESENTING 'TWO NAKED FIGURES IN ATROCIOUS POSTURES', IN THE HOUSE OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SHE WROTE IN A PHILADELPHIA NEWSPAPER, WAS 'EXTREMELY OBJECTIONABLE TO THE WOMEN OF THIS COUNTRY. IT CANNOT BE THAT HE HAS RESURRECTED THE WORK FROM ITS TEN YEARS OF OBSCURITY IN AN ART GALLERY TO FLAUNT ANY TALK OF "ART FOR ART'S SAKE" IN OUR FACES'. THIS TIME, HOWEVER, THE LADY HAD MET HER MATCH. THE PRESIDENT STOOD FAST, LEADING ARTISTS ATTACKED HER INTERFERENCE IN THE PRESS, AND THE PICTURE REMAINED IN THE WHITE HOUSE, SUBSEQUENTLY BEING HUNG OVER THE FIREPLACE IN WOODROW WILSON'S STUDY. ALTHOUGH IT WAS LATER GIVEN TO THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, IT DID NOT FINALLY LEAVE AMERICA UNTIL 1987.
WHILE OUR PICTURE IS THE PRIME ORIGINAL, THE POPULARITY OF THE COMPOSITION AND THE IMPORTANCE WATTS ATTACHED TO IT RESULTED IN A NUMBER OF LATER VERSIONS. IN 1893 LEONCE BéNéDITE, DIRECTOR OF THE LUXEMBOURG MUSEUM IN PARIS, VISITED LONDON TO PURCHASE REPRESENTATIVE ENGLISH PAINTINGS. HE CHOSE A VERSION OF LOVE AND LIFE, NOW IN THE LOUVRE TOGETHER WITH WHISTLER'S FAMOUS PORTRAIT OF HIS MOTHER WHICH BéNéDITE ACQUIRED AT THE SAME TIME. OTHER VERSIONS ARE IN THE TATE GALLERY, THE WALKER ART GALLERY, LIVERPOOL, AND THE WATTS GALLERY, COMPTON, WHILE TWO MORE ARE LISTED IN MRS WATTS' MANUSCRIPT CATALOGUE, ONE OF THEM THE SMALL VERSION WHICH APPEARS AS LOT 316 IN OUR SALE IMPRESSIONIST AND NINETEENTH CENTURY ART ON 25 JUNE. THERE ARE ALSO THEMATIC CONNECTIONS WITH TWO OTHER MAJOR WATTS ALLEGORIES, THE EARLIER LOVE AND DEATH AND THE LATER LOVE TRIUMPHANT, EACH AGAIN REPRESENTED BY SEVERAL VERSIONS. BUT ALTHOUGH THE THREE DESIGNS FORM A TRILOGY OF SORTS, THEY VARY CONSIERABLY IN CONCEPT AND DO NOT SEEM, LIKE OTHER PAINTINGS BY WATTS, TO HAVE BEEN CONCEIVED AS A FORMAL TRIPTYCH.
THE COMPOSITION OF LOVE AND LIFE SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN EVOLVED BY SEPTEMBER 1882, AND THE PICTURE WAS PAINTED BETWEEN FEBRUARY AND JUNE 1884. THE THEME HAD ALREADY BEEN TREATED IN A POEM BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, BUT THE PAINTING REMAINS ONE OF WATTS' MOST CHARACTERISTIC PRODUCTIONS, AN ATTEMPT TO EXPRESS A GREAT MORAL TRUTH IN PICTORIAL TERMS. THE DESIGN, HE WROTE, 'HAS TO DO ONLY WITH THE PUREST ABSTRACTIONS', AND THE FIGURES ARE 'ONLY SYMBOLS'. HIS FRIEND AND BIOGRAPHER MRS RUSSELL BARRINGTON, WHO UNDOUBTEDLY DISCUSSED THE SUBJECT WITH THE ARTIST, ELABORATED HIS MEANING AS FOLLOWS:
LOVE IS REPRESENTED BY THE WINGED FIGURE OF A YOUTH, AND LIFE BY THAT OF A YOUNG GIRL, WHO, CLINGING TO LOVE, IS BEING GUIDED BY HIM OVER THE ROUGH PLACES OF A ROCKY PRECIPICE WHICH BOTH ARE ASCENDING TOGETHER. LOVE IS LEADING THE WAY, AND HELPING LIFE, BY HIS SUPPORT AND TENDERNESS, TO CLIMB THE DIFFICULT PATH - EMBLEMATIC OF THE STRUGGLING CONDITIONS WHICH, MORE OR LESS, ARE THE PORTION OF ALL HUMAN EXISTENCE. THE HALF-EXTENDED WINGS OF LOVE SHADE THE RAYS OF LIGHT FROM BEATING TOO FIERCELY ON THE DELICATE FIGURE OF LIFE. LOVE'S FOOTSTEPS CAN BE TRACED ON THE ROCKY ASCENT BY THE DAISY FLOWERS WHICH HAVE SPRUNG UP IN HIS TRACK. THE ATMOSPHERE OF THE PICTURE IS BATHED IN THE GOLD OF LIGHT AND THE BLUE OF SPACE. AS THE FIGURES ASCEND, THE AIR BECOMES MORE GOLDEN WITH LIGHT ... THE TRUTH WHICH THE ARTIST HAS TRIED TO EMBODY IN THIS PICTURE, IS THAT LOVE, IN ITS WIDEST, MOST UNIVERSAL SENSE - IN THE SENSE OF CHARITY, SYMPATHY, AND UNSELFISHNESS - RAISES LIFE UPWARD; THAT HUMANITY IS HELPED BY TENDER AID ON THE ONE HAND, AND BY TENDER TRUST ON THE OTHER.
OF ALL WATTS' PICTURES, LOVE AND LIFE HAS THE CLOSEST ASSOCIATION WITH AMERICA, ALTHOUGH THERE WAS AN ELEMENT OF TRAGI-COMEDY ABOUT ITS FORTUNES IN THAT COUNTRY. TO BEGIN WITH, ALL WENT WELL. WATTS INCLUDED IT IN THE EXHIBITION OF HIS WORK AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, NEW YORK, IN 1884. IT RECEIVED CRITICAL ACCLAIM, AND IN 1893, AFTER IT HAD BEEN SEEN AGAIN AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION IN CHICAGO, WATTS GAVE IT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, EXPRESSING A HOPE THAT IT WOULD BECOME THE NUCLEUS OF A NATIONAL COLLECTION. IT WAS ACCEPTED BY AN ACT OF CONGRESS IN 1894, AND PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND INTENDED TO HANG IT IN THE WHITE HOUSE. HOWEVER, THE NUDITY OF THE FIGURES IMMEDIATELY CAME UNDER ATTACK FROM MRS EMILY D. MARTIN, NATIONAL SUPERINTENDENT OF PURITY IN LITERATURE AND ART FOR THE WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERAMCE UNION OF THE UNITED STATES, AND IT WAS SENT TO THE CORCORAN GALLERY INSTEAD. WATTS, OF COURSE, WAS HORRIFIED THAT HIS IDEALISTIC INTENTIONS HAD BEEN SO MISCONSTRUED; AND INDEED NINE YEARS LATER (1902) THEODORE ROOSEVELT HAD THE PICTURE RETURNED TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND HUNG IN THE DINING-ROOM. MRS MARTIN THEN STRUCK AGAIN. THE PRESENCE OF THIS 'VULGAR NUDE PAINTING', REPRESENTING 'TWO NAKED FIGURES IN ATROCIOUS POSTURES', IN THE HOUSE OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SHE WROTE IN A PHILADELPHIA NEWSPAPER, WAS 'EXTREMELY OBJECTIONABLE TO THE WOMEN OF THIS COUNTRY. IT CANNOT BE THAT HE HAS RESURRECTED THE WORK FROM ITS TEN YEARS OF OBSCURITY IN AN ART GALLERY TO FLAUNT ANY TALK OF "ART FOR ART'S SAKE" IN OUR FACES'. THIS TIME, HOWEVER, THE LADY HAD MET HER MATCH. THE PRESIDENT STOOD FAST, LEADING ARTISTS ATTACKED HER INTERFERENCE IN THE PRESS, AND THE PICTURE REMAINED IN THE WHITE HOUSE, SUBSEQUENTLY BEING HUNG OVER THE FIREPLACE IN WOODROW WILSON'S STUDY. ALTHOUGH IT WAS LATER GIVEN TO THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, IT DID NOT FINALLY LEAVE AMERICA UNTIL 1987.
WHILE OUR PICTURE IS THE PRIME ORIGINAL, THE POPULARITY OF THE COMPOSITION AND THE IMPORTANCE WATTS ATTACHED TO IT RESULTED IN A NUMBER OF LATER VERSIONS. IN 1893 LEONCE BéNéDITE, DIRECTOR OF THE LUXEMBOURG MUSEUM IN PARIS, VISITED LONDON TO PURCHASE REPRESENTATIVE ENGLISH PAINTINGS. HE CHOSE A VERSION OF LOVE AND LIFE, NOW IN THE LOUVRE TOGETHER WITH WHISTLER'S FAMOUS PORTRAIT OF HIS MOTHER WHICH BéNéDITE ACQUIRED AT THE SAME TIME. OTHER VERSIONS ARE IN THE TATE GALLERY, THE WALKER ART GALLERY, LIVERPOOL, AND THE WATTS GALLERY, COMPTON, WHILE TWO MORE ARE LISTED IN MRS WATTS' MANUSCRIPT CATALOGUE, ONE OF THEM THE SMALL VERSION WHICH APPEARS AS LOT 316 IN OUR SALE IMPRESSIONIST AND NINETEENTH CENTURY ART ON 25 JUNE. THERE ARE ALSO THEMATIC CONNECTIONS WITH TWO OTHER MAJOR WATTS ALLEGORIES, THE EARLIER LOVE AND DEATH AND THE LATER LOVE TRIUMPHANT, EACH AGAIN REPRESENTED BY SEVERAL VERSIONS. BUT ALTHOUGH THE THREE DESIGNS FORM A TRILOGY OF SORTS, THEY VARY CONSIERABLY IN CONCEPT AND DO NOT SEEM, LIKE OTHER PAINTINGS BY WATTS, TO HAVE BEEN CONCEIVED AS A FORMAL TRIPTYCH.