The Drawings of G.F. Watts

George Frederic Watts (1817-1904) was one of the nineteenth century's most celebrated British painters. Yet the thousands of drawings he produced during his career, either as studies for paintings or as independent works of art, have been the subject of surprisingly little research. Watts Gallery holds the largest collection of Watts's works on paper, comprising approximately 800 studies, sketches and finished artworks that represent one of the most complete records of a Victorian artist's development. These range from remarkable copies of engravings made when he was a mere ten years old to figurative sketches drawn shortly before his death at the age of 87. Elegant, technical, sensuous and ingenious, Watts's drawings offer unequalled insight into a great artistic imagination. Revealing the choices and changes he made as he developed some of his most celebrated works, the artist's drawings shed new light on his techniques, compositional decisions, and working processes. This book is the first in depth study of Watts's drawings.