George Frederic Watts. Etching with some drypoint in black ink on ivory paper, 1879; 6 ½ x 4 ⅝ inches (16.6 x 11.7 cm) – image size; 71/4 x 51/4 inches (18.4 x 13.3 cm) – plate mark
This print shows Watts in three-quarter profile wearing a skullcap. The etching exists in three states. In the larger third state the etching extends in outline further onto the torso. Legros exhibited an impression of his etching of Watts at the Society of Painter-Etchers in 1881. The small version was published in La Revue de l'Art ancien et moderne, Vol. VII, on May 10, 1900. The etching was apparently based on a black and white chalk drawing on blue paper of c.1879, in reverse with respect to the print. It initially belonged to Frederick Leighton and then to the great Legros collector Frank Edward Bliss. It subsequently was in the collection of William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, and sold in his sale at the Anderson Galleries in New York on March 2-4, 1926, lot 220. Another chalk drawing of Watts on blue paper sold at Bonhams, London, on November 9, 2004, lot 109, but in this drawing Watts is shown in strict profile facing to the left.
The relationship between Legros and Watts was one of mutual respect. Watts took an interest in Legros shortly after he moved to London. Watts was an admirer of the “grave simplicity” of Legros’s work and he encouraged his principal patron Charles H. Rickards to buy works by the young Frenchman when Legros was initially struggling financially. Legros was appointed teacher of etching at the South Kensington School of Art in 1871 on the recommendations of D. G. Rossetti, Edward Poynter, and Watts. Watts also actively supported Legros’s appointment as Slade Professor at University College London in 1876. Legros portrayed Watts on a number of occasions in different media. A bronze portrait medallion of Watts is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. Legros did a later lithograph of Watts in c.1894. Watts owned a painting by Legros of 1872 entitled The Retreat, which Mary Watts presented to the Tate Britain in 1913, by the wish of her late husband. Watts also made an etching of Legros of c.1879, possibly at around the same time that Legros made the etching of him. A copy of Watts’s etching of Legros is in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Links to Related Material
Bibliography
Salaman, Malcolm C. “The Great Painter-Etchers From Rembrandt to Whistler.” The Studio, Special Winter Number (1913-14): 39 & 233.
Created 19 November 2022