DOI chapter:
Chapter VI: Sickness, Travels, and Old Age
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62482#0340
i8o REMINISCENCES OF G. F. WATTS
views. In a subsequent letter from Aix-les-Bains, he wrote
enthusiastically of Burne-Jones, whose pictures in the New
Gallery I had described to him in a letter. Watts wished to
exhibit with Burne-Jones, but said he had no further con-
nection with the New Gallery. There were certain affinities,
he felt, between his own work and Burne-Jones’ art, “ not,
I am afraid, in pictorial achievement, but in earnest deter-
mination to do the best that is possible.” He believed that
the future would place Burne-Jones above everybody. “It
is great art, and he works like a great artist.” He wished to
include the “Angel and Child” he had painted among the
pictures for the nation, though the unexpected strain that
year made his limitation of income a source of anxiety.
Therefore he would make a replica of the “Angel of Death,”
which he would sell, and promised a friend of mine, who had
wished to purchase the original picture, the refusal of it.
He expressed great anxiety to get to any work he could do.
He was glad we were satisfied about Guy (our son). “ Pray
let him grow up strong and manly, not a brute ! ” but he
suspected that in the times that were coming, we should
want men rather than sentimentalists.
Watts had turned his back on the South for the last time.
He realised that no more experiments must be made. At his
age he could be no traveller. He brought home with him the
“ Naples ” which he worked on during the summer, a beautiful
thing which was bought by our friend the late Mr. Thompson
Yates, who lent it for exhibition during many months at
Leighton House, and a “ View of St. Agnese from Mentone.”
The next winter Watts tried Brighton. He looked fairly
well when I saw him there in the autumn, but he was taken
ill shortly after, and wrote later that he had been in bed
nine weeks, and had had a hospital nurse for eight weeks.
He was afraid that I and all his friends would be disappointed
views. In a subsequent letter from Aix-les-Bains, he wrote
enthusiastically of Burne-Jones, whose pictures in the New
Gallery I had described to him in a letter. Watts wished to
exhibit with Burne-Jones, but said he had no further con-
nection with the New Gallery. There were certain affinities,
he felt, between his own work and Burne-Jones’ art, “ not,
I am afraid, in pictorial achievement, but in earnest deter-
mination to do the best that is possible.” He believed that
the future would place Burne-Jones above everybody. “It
is great art, and he works like a great artist.” He wished to
include the “Angel and Child” he had painted among the
pictures for the nation, though the unexpected strain that
year made his limitation of income a source of anxiety.
Therefore he would make a replica of the “Angel of Death,”
which he would sell, and promised a friend of mine, who had
wished to purchase the original picture, the refusal of it.
He expressed great anxiety to get to any work he could do.
He was glad we were satisfied about Guy (our son). “ Pray
let him grow up strong and manly, not a brute ! ” but he
suspected that in the times that were coming, we should
want men rather than sentimentalists.
Watts had turned his back on the South for the last time.
He realised that no more experiments must be made. At his
age he could be no traveller. He brought home with him the
“ Naples ” which he worked on during the summer, a beautiful
thing which was bought by our friend the late Mr. Thompson
Yates, who lent it for exhibition during many months at
Leighton House, and a “ View of St. Agnese from Mentone.”
The next winter Watts tried Brighton. He looked fairly
well when I saw him there in the autumn, but he was taken
ill shortly after, and wrote later that he had been in bed
nine weeks, and had had a hospital nurse for eight weeks.
He was afraid that I and all his friends would be disappointed