I can recognise George Frederic Watts’ (1817–1904) paintings fairly easily, especially as his goal was to represent human emotions in a universal symbolic language. I don’t think it was possible to make emotions universal, but I admired his attempts. In Watts’ long life, his most attractive period was when he came close to the younger artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882). Rossetti’s Pre-Raphaelite portraits of women had a richness and sensuousness that Watts seemed to admire.
And I knew about Watts’ most important home - in Kensington, designed for Watts in the Queen Anne revival-style. It was next to the house designed for Val Princep by Philip Webb and next to the house built for Frederic Leighton. Both the neighbours’ houses survive but the local council allowed Watts’ house to be demolished in the 1960s. I hope the councillors rot in hell forever.
The second house was Limnerslease, George and Mary’s country cottage in Compton in Surrey, about which I knew nothing. It was the autumn and winter residence of George and Mary Watts and was appropriately commissioned from the Arts & Crafts architect Ernest George. According to Jeremy Musson, the interior was a masterpiece of Arts and Crafts in its own right – rich and warm, with gleaming copper, Persian rugs, Oriental hangings, oak chests and Damascus pottery.
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Watts Cemetery Chapel
Compton, Surrey
built 1896-8
Next to the studio-house, completed in 1891, was a purpose built gallery for the public display of Watts’ paintings and a chapel. It was a unique grouping, providing an opportunity to look into the excitement of the late C19th-early C20th art world, with all its optimism and social conscience. The painter’s Surrey home was to become the hub of the artistic social enterprise that had few equivalents in Europe.
So what did Musson mean by social conscience? The Home Arts and Industries Association was set up in 1885 to encourage handicrafts among the working classes. There seemed to be a Victorian preoccupation with social improvement through creative enlightenment, similar to the Victorians’ passion for mechanics’ institutes. When Compton Parish Council created a new cemetery, George Watts paid for the chapel and his wife Mary offered to design and build the new project.
Leading a very large group of passionate locals, The Watts Cemetery Chapel was designed in the Gothic Revival Style and built from 1896 to 1898. The exterior was designed as a stark, round Roman chapel, perhaps based on Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The frieze encircling the Chapel beneath its dome symbolised the Path of the Just. A pattern of trees with mice and small animals creeping through its roots and birds of peace perched on its branches suggested the Path, which was divided into four sections – the Spirit of Hope, Truth, Love and Light.
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Watts Cemetery Chapel exterior
terracotta frieze
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Watts Cemetery Chapel interior
Watts Gallery's curator said that the English Heritage listing of the Cemetery was recognition of its very special status as a place where landscape, art and remembrance were blended very beautifully. How perfect that George and Mary Watts were both buried here, as were many other people close to the Gallery at different times over its history.
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And I knew about Watts’ most important home - in Kensington, designed for Watts in the Queen Anne revival-style. It was next to the house designed for Val Princep by Philip Webb and next to the house built for Frederic Leighton. Both the neighbours’ houses survive but the local council allowed Watts’ house to be demolished in the 1960s. I hope the councillors rot in hell forever.
The second house was Limnerslease, George and Mary’s country cottage in Compton in Surrey, about which I knew nothing. It was the autumn and winter residence of George and Mary Watts and was appropriately commissioned from the Arts & Crafts architect Ernest George. According to Jeremy Musson, the interior was a masterpiece of Arts and Crafts in its own right – rich and warm, with gleaming copper, Persian rugs, Oriental hangings, oak chests and Damascus pottery.
Compton, Surrey
built 1896-8
So what did Musson mean by social conscience? The Home Arts and Industries Association was set up in 1885 to encourage handicrafts among the working classes. There seemed to be a Victorian preoccupation with social improvement through creative enlightenment, similar to the Victorians’ passion for mechanics’ institutes. When Compton Parish Council created a new cemetery, George Watts paid for the chapel and his wife Mary offered to design and build the new project.
Leading a very large group of passionate locals, The Watts Cemetery Chapel was designed in the Gothic Revival Style and built from 1896 to 1898. The exterior was designed as a stark, round Roman chapel, perhaps based on Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The frieze encircling the Chapel beneath its dome symbolised the Path of the Just. A pattern of trees with mice and small animals creeping through its roots and birds of peace perched on its branches suggested the Path, which was divided into four sections – the Spirit of Hope, Truth, Love and Light.
terracotta frieze
consecrated in 1898 by the Bishop of Winchester
and completed in 1904.
The interior was designed to be very special. The painted gesso decoration depicted an elaborate iconography, detailing every aspect of existence, drawing on all the great spiritual traditions. GF Watts himself painted a version of The All-Pervading for the altar, just a couple of months before his death in 1904. Each member of Mary's evening class had a separate job, and did it well. Musson believed that the 74 local villagers had created an unforgettable monument to the Arts and Crafts Movement and the Home Arts and Industries Movement. I agree.
The interior was designed to be very special. The painted gesso decoration depicted an elaborate iconography, detailing every aspect of existence, drawing on all the great spiritual traditions. GF Watts himself painted a version of The All-Pervading for the altar, just a couple of months before his death in 1904. Each member of Mary's evening class had a separate job, and did it well. Musson believed that the 74 local villagers had created an unforgettable monument to the Arts and Crafts Movement and the Home Arts and Industries Movement. I agree.
Limnerslease in Compton in Surrey
Designed in the Arts & Crafts style by architect Ernest George
built in 1890-1.
built in 1890-1.