DOI chapter:
Chapter IV: Sculpture
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62482#0128
52 REMINISCENCES OF G. F. WATTS
brilliantly white—as white as the horse in Watts’ “ Sir
Galahad”—with rippling, shining mane and tail, and partly
covered with beautiful purple silk trappings. The Duke of
Westminster had sent it to “sit” to Watts. He told me it
did not help him much in finishing his statue, but the sight
of it remained in his mental eye long after whenever he was
painting horses.
The heroic statue “Vital Energy” is the greatest example
that exists of Watts’ persistency in endeavouring to complete
a work; but the difficulties were almost insurmountable.
The actual size of the work was perhaps the greatest impedi-
ment, for to cope with it successfully meant physical con-
ditions which did not belong to Watts’ constitution. An
ingenious method of making changes in the lines of the
horse had been invented, and I think probably this prolonged
the work greatly. Iron bars had been made of the right
length for the limbs of the man and horse—the length of
these of course never changing as they represented the
bones, and at the end of each was a hook or an eye. Before
the muscles had been added to these bars the hooks were
fastened into the eyes, and turned into the direction Watts
meant the limb to take. If he wanted to alter any direction
of the line of any limb after the modelling of the flesh had
been added, he had but to saw through the tow and plaster,
adapt the hook and eye to a different angle, and fill in the
gap with fresh tow and plaster. This method was certainly
most ingenious, but it led to many experiments and in-
numerable changes. Had Watts been able to work steadily
on the statue with the first impetus of origination, the work
would doubtless have been very different from what it is
now. Indeed I have seen it actually pass through more than
one phase, wdien I thought it carried out the very fine small
sketch he made originally, with better success than it did
brilliantly white—as white as the horse in Watts’ “ Sir
Galahad”—with rippling, shining mane and tail, and partly
covered with beautiful purple silk trappings. The Duke of
Westminster had sent it to “sit” to Watts. He told me it
did not help him much in finishing his statue, but the sight
of it remained in his mental eye long after whenever he was
painting horses.
The heroic statue “Vital Energy” is the greatest example
that exists of Watts’ persistency in endeavouring to complete
a work; but the difficulties were almost insurmountable.
The actual size of the work was perhaps the greatest impedi-
ment, for to cope with it successfully meant physical con-
ditions which did not belong to Watts’ constitution. An
ingenious method of making changes in the lines of the
horse had been invented, and I think probably this prolonged
the work greatly. Iron bars had been made of the right
length for the limbs of the man and horse—the length of
these of course never changing as they represented the
bones, and at the end of each was a hook or an eye. Before
the muscles had been added to these bars the hooks were
fastened into the eyes, and turned into the direction Watts
meant the limb to take. If he wanted to alter any direction
of the line of any limb after the modelling of the flesh had
been added, he had but to saw through the tow and plaster,
adapt the hook and eye to a different angle, and fill in the
gap with fresh tow and plaster. This method was certainly
most ingenious, but it led to many experiments and in-
numerable changes. Had Watts been able to work steadily
on the statue with the first impetus of origination, the work
would doubtless have been very different from what it is
now. Indeed I have seen it actually pass through more than
one phase, wdien I thought it carried out the very fine small
sketch he made originally, with better success than it did