DOI chapter:
Chapter VI: Sickness, Travels, and Old Age
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62482#0344
184 REMINISCENCES OF G. F. WATTS
thoughts which it had suggested to him. Then he continued,
saying he hoped I would go on writing, and write of artists,
the lives and characters and aspirations of these not having
been made use of by novelists often, as literary men, as a rule,
cared little about art, a subject he said I was perfectly
competent to speak about. He ended his letter by saying
that having absolutely decided that he would paint no more
portraits for money he was now painting several! He had
become interested, he wrote, in the institution of the “ Home
Arts,” and his reason for painting these portraits was to enable
him to give it a little substantial aid. “ I do not consider that
in doing this I am departing from my forced determination,
do you ? ” I certainly thought he was, though I was in no wise
inclined to criticise adversely such a departure. In a subse-
quent letter, referring to his doing what he said he never
would do again—painting portraits for money—he wrote
he hardly thought any person would have made him do it for
any private reason. He was not, however, after working
quite sixty years, without anxiety about his own necessary ex-
penses, and there were none that were not necessary! Now
that he was better, he was painting on the second “Court of
Death,” which he hoped, if he lived so long, to finish by his
eightieth birthday! He hoped there was something in it.
In February 1895 he read an article I wrote in The
Spectator on our mutual friend, Mrs. Thornycroft, the
sculptress. He wrote he thought my article “on dear
Mrs. Thornycroft” was excellent. She had the element
of a great character in a very unusual degree, and had
on the whole a very prosperous life. He opened this
letter after he had closed it, because, in reading another
article in the same Spectator, he found it was said, or
certainly implied, that gambling in itself was not immoral!
How could Mr. Hutton, who was, he believed, a religious
thoughts which it had suggested to him. Then he continued,
saying he hoped I would go on writing, and write of artists,
the lives and characters and aspirations of these not having
been made use of by novelists often, as literary men, as a rule,
cared little about art, a subject he said I was perfectly
competent to speak about. He ended his letter by saying
that having absolutely decided that he would paint no more
portraits for money he was now painting several! He had
become interested, he wrote, in the institution of the “ Home
Arts,” and his reason for painting these portraits was to enable
him to give it a little substantial aid. “ I do not consider that
in doing this I am departing from my forced determination,
do you ? ” I certainly thought he was, though I was in no wise
inclined to criticise adversely such a departure. In a subse-
quent letter, referring to his doing what he said he never
would do again—painting portraits for money—he wrote
he hardly thought any person would have made him do it for
any private reason. He was not, however, after working
quite sixty years, without anxiety about his own necessary ex-
penses, and there were none that were not necessary! Now
that he was better, he was painting on the second “Court of
Death,” which he hoped, if he lived so long, to finish by his
eightieth birthday! He hoped there was something in it.
In February 1895 he read an article I wrote in The
Spectator on our mutual friend, Mrs. Thornycroft, the
sculptress. He wrote he thought my article “on dear
Mrs. Thornycroft” was excellent. She had the element
of a great character in a very unusual degree, and had
on the whole a very prosperous life. He opened this
letter after he had closed it, because, in reading another
article in the same Spectator, he found it was said, or
certainly implied, that gambling in itself was not immoral!
How could Mr. Hutton, who was, he believed, a religious