DOI Kapitel:
Chapter V: Our Friendship
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62482#0147
OUR FRIENDSHIP 59
incredulous the friend might be of meriting his enthusiastic
praises, it was not the contrary of pleasant to be thus believed
in by Watts.1 Though “plain living and high thinking”
was the aim of his life, daily intercourse with him was very
far from erring on the side of serious dullness. A latent
vitality and playfulness of mind could easily be aroused, and
would quickly dispel his melancholy moods. It was not long
before Mr. Barrington and I found out that the best help
we could give to Watts in the solitary life he had chosen,
beyond my helping him in his work, was to chase away the
weariness which led to his melancholy in the hours of rest.
I had learnt the value of an atmosphere of “ all things bright
and beautiful ” when having to live with sensitive excitable
nerves and the dejection often accompanying them, from one
who, like my friend, Mrs. Nassau Senior, radiated to all
around her the joy she herself felt in the beautiful gifts of
nature we inherit as human beings.2 In the lax hours of
rest from his painting or sculpture, the dwelling on “all
things bright and beautiful ” was certainly the best medicine
for Watts when he was weary. Pure, innocent, delightful
thoughts and ideas would spring up in his mind with renewed
vigour when inoculated by the vitality of other minds in sym-
pathy with his own, and to ventilate these in conversation
1 A piece of painting I had done pleased him. He said it was “ nothing short of
Holbein ! ” He praised it in the same terms to Leighton. The next time Leigh-
ton came to my studio I remember him saying, his eyes full of fun, “Now let’s see
the Holbein !” Leighton fully understood Watts. It was a wholesome counteract-
ing influence to get criticism from Leighton on the work Watts praised. In the
case in question, whatever my painting was like, it was not like Holbein. Watts
was a splendid teacher, but no critic of the work of his friends. Leighton, on the
contrary, criticised all work as he would his own—absolutely impartially, and with
but one aim, to improve it by finding out what in it was wrong or lacking.
2 This was my husband’s mother, Lady Catherine Barrington, who retained
to the end of a long life the beautiful happiness arising from feeling a joy in all
that is best in the world, which the nicest, most natural children possess. Her
motto was : “ All things bright and beautiful.”
incredulous the friend might be of meriting his enthusiastic
praises, it was not the contrary of pleasant to be thus believed
in by Watts.1 Though “plain living and high thinking”
was the aim of his life, daily intercourse with him was very
far from erring on the side of serious dullness. A latent
vitality and playfulness of mind could easily be aroused, and
would quickly dispel his melancholy moods. It was not long
before Mr. Barrington and I found out that the best help
we could give to Watts in the solitary life he had chosen,
beyond my helping him in his work, was to chase away the
weariness which led to his melancholy in the hours of rest.
I had learnt the value of an atmosphere of “ all things bright
and beautiful ” when having to live with sensitive excitable
nerves and the dejection often accompanying them, from one
who, like my friend, Mrs. Nassau Senior, radiated to all
around her the joy she herself felt in the beautiful gifts of
nature we inherit as human beings.2 In the lax hours of
rest from his painting or sculpture, the dwelling on “all
things bright and beautiful ” was certainly the best medicine
for Watts when he was weary. Pure, innocent, delightful
thoughts and ideas would spring up in his mind with renewed
vigour when inoculated by the vitality of other minds in sym-
pathy with his own, and to ventilate these in conversation
1 A piece of painting I had done pleased him. He said it was “ nothing short of
Holbein ! ” He praised it in the same terms to Leighton. The next time Leigh-
ton came to my studio I remember him saying, his eyes full of fun, “Now let’s see
the Holbein !” Leighton fully understood Watts. It was a wholesome counteract-
ing influence to get criticism from Leighton on the work Watts praised. In the
case in question, whatever my painting was like, it was not like Holbein. Watts
was a splendid teacher, but no critic of the work of his friends. Leighton, on the
contrary, criticised all work as he would his own—absolutely impartially, and with
but one aim, to improve it by finding out what in it was wrong or lacking.
2 This was my husband’s mother, Lady Catherine Barrington, who retained
to the end of a long life the beautiful happiness arising from feeling a joy in all
that is best in the world, which the nicest, most natural children possess. Her
motto was : “ All things bright and beautiful.”