DOI Heft:
No. 125 (August, 1903)
DOI Artikel:Erskine, Steuart: Mr. G. F. Watts' portraits at Holland House
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19879#0198
Mr. Watts' Portraits at Holland House
opposite wall we have the portraits of M. Thiers painting and evidently a careful character-study,
and M. Guizot, both painted in Paris, when both M. Guizot is seen in profile, and the painting
were intimate with the Hollands, and often had long shews the same delicacy of treatment in the eyes,
and interesting discussions in the salon which Lord cheek-bones and hollows of the temple, which
Holland, according to his custom, lost no time characterise the pencil sketches. There is also a
in initiating. It is interesting to see the two head of the beautiful Contessa Castiglione in this
pictures hanging side by side on the walls of room, which is unfinished. Another interesting
a house in that country which had so often portrait, of which we give an illustration, is that
been a bone of contention between the two states- of Princess Lieven, which hangs in the Journal
men, and in which Guizot had found a home both Room. It represents her as an old lady, and was
in the time of his prosperity and his adversity, and painted in Paris in 1856, the year before she died,
to remember that if they were constantly in opposi- Wife of Prince Lieven, at one time Russian Ambas-
tion to each other, they had also much in common, sador in London, she was one of the interesting
Both were supporters of that throne which was said figures of the day, and was the centre of a society
to be " founded on a barricade," and both were of her own. She is dressed in black and has a
conspicuous and distinguished figures in the cap tied under the chin; the look of age in her
Monarchie de Juillet. The portrait of M. Thiers, face is tempered with a certain sprightliness. The
spectacles on nose, rather Napoleonic in expres- colour scheme is rich but sombre; a full green,
sion, with dark brilliant eyes, is a solid piece of which is repeated in the foliage of a plant and the
cushions of the chair, being
the dominant note.
The remaining pictures by
Mr. Watts are to be found in
a small apartment called the
Chloe Room, which opens into
the garden, the most interest-
ing being the portrait of the
artist as a young man, painted
during his stay at Casa Ferroni.
It has a Florentine.background
and the artist, whose oval face
is turned to the spectator, is in
armour. It is interesting to
compare it with the later por-
trait in the Tate Gallery. In
both pictures ,we have the
face of the poet and dreamer;
the face of a man who would
deliberately turn his back on
the fleshpots and pursue the
ideal.
Prince Lucien Bonaparte
hangs opposite ; a small-
featured man in a black frock-
coat, with the red ribbon of
the Legion of Honour in his
button-hole.
Besides these paintings and
drawings Mr. Watts has left his
mark as a decorator in Hol-
land House; some frescoes
around the ceilings of the stair-
case, various decorations on
portrait of princess lieven by g. f. watts panels about the house, and
183
opposite wall we have the portraits of M. Thiers painting and evidently a careful character-study,
and M. Guizot, both painted in Paris, when both M. Guizot is seen in profile, and the painting
were intimate with the Hollands, and often had long shews the same delicacy of treatment in the eyes,
and interesting discussions in the salon which Lord cheek-bones and hollows of the temple, which
Holland, according to his custom, lost no time characterise the pencil sketches. There is also a
in initiating. It is interesting to see the two head of the beautiful Contessa Castiglione in this
pictures hanging side by side on the walls of room, which is unfinished. Another interesting
a house in that country which had so often portrait, of which we give an illustration, is that
been a bone of contention between the two states- of Princess Lieven, which hangs in the Journal
men, and in which Guizot had found a home both Room. It represents her as an old lady, and was
in the time of his prosperity and his adversity, and painted in Paris in 1856, the year before she died,
to remember that if they were constantly in opposi- Wife of Prince Lieven, at one time Russian Ambas-
tion to each other, they had also much in common, sador in London, she was one of the interesting
Both were supporters of that throne which was said figures of the day, and was the centre of a society
to be " founded on a barricade," and both were of her own. She is dressed in black and has a
conspicuous and distinguished figures in the cap tied under the chin; the look of age in her
Monarchie de Juillet. The portrait of M. Thiers, face is tempered with a certain sprightliness. The
spectacles on nose, rather Napoleonic in expres- colour scheme is rich but sombre; a full green,
sion, with dark brilliant eyes, is a solid piece of which is repeated in the foliage of a plant and the
cushions of the chair, being
the dominant note.
The remaining pictures by
Mr. Watts are to be found in
a small apartment called the
Chloe Room, which opens into
the garden, the most interest-
ing being the portrait of the
artist as a young man, painted
during his stay at Casa Ferroni.
It has a Florentine.background
and the artist, whose oval face
is turned to the spectator, is in
armour. It is interesting to
compare it with the later por-
trait in the Tate Gallery. In
both pictures ,we have the
face of the poet and dreamer;
the face of a man who would
deliberately turn his back on
the fleshpots and pursue the
ideal.
Prince Lucien Bonaparte
hangs opposite ; a small-
featured man in a black frock-
coat, with the red ribbon of
the Legion of Honour in his
button-hole.
Besides these paintings and
drawings Mr. Watts has left his
mark as a decorator in Hol-
land House; some frescoes
around the ceilings of the stair-
case, various decorations on
portrait of princess lieven by g. f. watts panels about the house, and
183