DOI chapter:
Chapter V: Our Friendship
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62482#0241
OUR FRIENDSHIP 113
the ordinary newspaper critic of that day to say about such
stuff as that ? He had no clue ; it was not like anything
else; how was he to get his copy out of it? He must
appear wise, Watts could not be exactly ignored, so he gene-
rally ended by abusing it as not having the good qualities of
work to which the critic chose to compare it—creative im-
agination being the last power such writers dreamt of
ascribing to any of Watts’ art in those days. We read
much “ criticism ” in the newspapers in which we recognised
this process as having taken place.1
When, however, an intelligent criticism was written
he fully valued it. On January 7, 1882, he wrote from Brigh-
ton that the article in The Times, while gratifying him, as
proving not only a wish to understand the impulses under
the influence of which Watts had always worked, but also that
perception of them which he has so rarely met with from
the critic would, he was afraid, appear to be written in too
friendly a spirit, and might, even among some more generally
successful artists, have been so by implied comparisons. He
wrote he should be sorry for this, for much as he valued
the praise for intention, which he could not but feel to be
his due, his feeling upon reading the article a second time
was almost one of alarm. He would be sorry if excessive
1 To this habit of the critics with respect to his early picture, “ The Heron,”
Watts refers in a letter written May 19, 1889 : “ I see in the same paper {Spectator)
a notice of the New Gallery ; it is strange that one can never do anything in the
way of painting without being supposed to be prompted by some old master. The
critic finds the influence of Hondecoeter ! " I don’t suppose at the time I painted
“The Heron” I had ever seen a picture by the Dutch painter, and even now
I hardly recall anything of his. I think the criticism otherwise good enough I
I daresay the head wants truth, for it was not studied from a living model, and
cannot compare with Japanese birds.” Whatever interest Watts took in reading
the criticisms on his own art, he always maintained that living in an age when the
artist was being constantly exposed to criticism was detrimental to the state of
mind which was the happiest and best for the highest interests of his work.
the ordinary newspaper critic of that day to say about such
stuff as that ? He had no clue ; it was not like anything
else; how was he to get his copy out of it? He must
appear wise, Watts could not be exactly ignored, so he gene-
rally ended by abusing it as not having the good qualities of
work to which the critic chose to compare it—creative im-
agination being the last power such writers dreamt of
ascribing to any of Watts’ art in those days. We read
much “ criticism ” in the newspapers in which we recognised
this process as having taken place.1
When, however, an intelligent criticism was written
he fully valued it. On January 7, 1882, he wrote from Brigh-
ton that the article in The Times, while gratifying him, as
proving not only a wish to understand the impulses under
the influence of which Watts had always worked, but also that
perception of them which he has so rarely met with from
the critic would, he was afraid, appear to be written in too
friendly a spirit, and might, even among some more generally
successful artists, have been so by implied comparisons. He
wrote he should be sorry for this, for much as he valued
the praise for intention, which he could not but feel to be
his due, his feeling upon reading the article a second time
was almost one of alarm. He would be sorry if excessive
1 To this habit of the critics with respect to his early picture, “ The Heron,”
Watts refers in a letter written May 19, 1889 : “ I see in the same paper {Spectator)
a notice of the New Gallery ; it is strange that one can never do anything in the
way of painting without being supposed to be prompted by some old master. The
critic finds the influence of Hondecoeter ! " I don’t suppose at the time I painted
“The Heron” I had ever seen a picture by the Dutch painter, and even now
I hardly recall anything of his. I think the criticism otherwise good enough I
I daresay the head wants truth, for it was not studied from a living model, and
cannot compare with Japanese birds.” Whatever interest Watts took in reading
the criticisms on his own art, he always maintained that living in an age when the
artist was being constantly exposed to criticism was detrimental to the state of
mind which was the happiest and best for the highest interests of his work.