George Frederic Watts

George Frederic Watts, OM, RA (1817-1904) was an English Victorian painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. He said, "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as Hope and Love and Life. These paintings were intended to form part of an epic symbolic cycle called the House of Life, in which the emotions and aspirations of life would all be represented in a universal symbolic language. Watts was born in Marylebone, London on the birthday of George Frederic Handel (after whom he was named), to the second wife of a poor piano-maker. Delicate in health and with his mother dying while he was still young, he was home-schooled by his father in a conservative interpretation of Christianity as well as in the classics. The former put him off conventional religion for life, while the latter was a continual influence on his art. He showed artistic promise very early, enrolling as a student at the Royal Academy at the age of 18. He first exhibited at the Academy in 1837, while also beginning a portraiture career. When visiting Italy Watts began producing landscapes and was inspired by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel. Leaving Florence in April 1847 for what was intended to be a brief return to London, he ended up staying. Back in Britain he was unable to obtain a building in which to carry out his plan of a grand fresco based on his Italian experiences. In consequence most of his major works are conventional oil paintings, some of which were intended as studies for the House of Life.