DOI chapter:
Chapter V: Our Friendship
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62482#0194
90 REMINISCENCES OF G. F. WATTS
our desire that the public should be enabled to view Watts’
pictures, naturally outweighed any personal considerations.
Canon and Mrs. Barnett being friends of ours, we were
greatly interested in the first exhibition of pictures in White-
chapel, which took place in 1881. We talked of it to
Watts, and he also entered into the scheme, lending us
pictures for it and for the subsequent exhibitions which took
place every spring ; Leighton did the same. These exhibi-
tions, and the opening of the gallery to the public, realised
ideas which had hitherto lain somewhat latent in Watts’
mind, but which were intimately connected with the most
earnest aims in his own art. Where definite action was
necessary—beyond the immediate concerns of his own studio
—Watts required the aid of others. He had neither the
time nor the power of transferring his thoughts easily into
channels other than those directly pertaining to his art,
necessary for acting by himself in such schemes as those we
had at heart, such as the Whitechapel Exhibitions, but he
gave the most sympathetic encouragement to such move-
ments, and, so far as he could do so, helped us in every
possible manner. Parties of teachers and poor people would
come from Whitechapel and other places to be entertained
by us in our garden, the object being to take them into
Leighton’s and Watts’ studios, and by trying to awaken in
their minds a real interest in art and beauty, inspire in our
friends a sense of enjoyment in those things which aroused
a great feeling of delight in ourselves. “What is worth
having is worth sharing.” Both artists keenly entered into
the spirit of these entertainments. I have a clear vision
now of a scene in the gallery when, after listening to songs
and recitals from the guests, we ended by singing “ Auld
Lang Syne,” Watts eagerly joining in and making part of
the circle of joined hands. Never, I think, could a more
our desire that the public should be enabled to view Watts’
pictures, naturally outweighed any personal considerations.
Canon and Mrs. Barnett being friends of ours, we were
greatly interested in the first exhibition of pictures in White-
chapel, which took place in 1881. We talked of it to
Watts, and he also entered into the scheme, lending us
pictures for it and for the subsequent exhibitions which took
place every spring ; Leighton did the same. These exhibi-
tions, and the opening of the gallery to the public, realised
ideas which had hitherto lain somewhat latent in Watts’
mind, but which were intimately connected with the most
earnest aims in his own art. Where definite action was
necessary—beyond the immediate concerns of his own studio
—Watts required the aid of others. He had neither the
time nor the power of transferring his thoughts easily into
channels other than those directly pertaining to his art,
necessary for acting by himself in such schemes as those we
had at heart, such as the Whitechapel Exhibitions, but he
gave the most sympathetic encouragement to such move-
ments, and, so far as he could do so, helped us in every
possible manner. Parties of teachers and poor people would
come from Whitechapel and other places to be entertained
by us in our garden, the object being to take them into
Leighton’s and Watts’ studios, and by trying to awaken in
their minds a real interest in art and beauty, inspire in our
friends a sense of enjoyment in those things which aroused
a great feeling of delight in ourselves. “What is worth
having is worth sharing.” Both artists keenly entered into
the spirit of these entertainments. I have a clear vision
now of a scene in the gallery when, after listening to songs
and recitals from the guests, we ended by singing “ Auld
Lang Syne,” Watts eagerly joining in and making part of
the circle of joined hands. Never, I think, could a more