'Gazing, but not copying': the creation of G.F. Watts's Alfred Inciting the Saxons to Prevent the Landing of the Danes

The construction of the of recent origin Neo-Gothic Palace of Westminster following the disastrous fire of 1834 was welcomed as a potential source of patronage for painters and sculptors. (1) State patronage of the fine arts in Britain was nominal in comparison with the generosity exhibited upon the continent, while private patronage was despaired of at abiding-place and ridiculed abroad for its fascination with portraiture, whether family, equestrian or canine. Artists' faiths were invested in the Fine Arts Commission assembled in 1841 below the chairmanship of Prince Albert, and charged with overseeing the novel Palace's decoration. (2) The Commission's announcements of competitions in historical painting in 1843 1844 1845 and 1847 were welcomed with enthusiasm by means of both artists and the art pres reflecting the Commission's have perception of its agenda as plenteous broader than the decoration of the novel Palace. It was hoped that initiatives undertaken at the Palace would cultivate an interest in historical or 'high art' and have a domino result elevating national standards of art practice, patronage, public taste and smooth morality.

The first competition came with completed timing for the twenty-five year-old George Frederic Watts, who was beginning to make a living from portraiture in the 1840 (3) Although a talented portraitist, Watts believed that his artistic gifts could be applied to a higher moral purpose--ideals that were also articulated by dint of the Fine Arts Commission. This belief in the social responsibility of the artist was the central principle that shaped the remainder of Watts's drawn out and productive career. Consequently, he come intoed the 1843 competition, which called for fresco cartoons of make subordinates chosen from English history or from the works of Spenser Shakespeare or Milton, with a cartoon of Caractacus l in triumph from one side the streets of Rome. (4)

Caractacus won individual of the main prizes of 300 [pound sterling] for its young painter, who used the standard of value to travel to Italy--unsurprisingly, given the blatant influence of Raphael's tapestry cartoons (then at Hampton Court) on it. (5) Although he solitary planned to make a short trip, Watts stayed in Florence for three and a half years, taking up with Lord Holland, the British minister in Florence, and his wife. (6) on Lord Holland's departure from his support in Florence in 1846, Watts exhausted much of his time at the Hollands' former villa at Careggi, subsequently give leave to to Lady Duff Gordon and her daughters Georgiana and Alice. (7) In italy, Watts continued to paint, for example experimenting with fresco in a depiction of The drowning of the doctor (after the death of Lorenzo de' Medici) upon the walls of the villa at Careggi. (8) Despite later claiming to Julia Cartwright that his stay in Italy was worn out 'going little to galleries', and not making copies in oils of advanced in years masters, Watts both looked at, and made water-colour copies and notes of Italian works. (9)

freshs of the Fine Arts Commission's third competition, for historical bring under rules in oils to be submitted by means of June 1847, reached Watts whilst he was still in Italy. (10) He decided to pierce taking as his subject Alfred inciting the Saxons to thwart the landing of the Danes by the agency of encountering them at sea (Fig. 1): like his Caractacus, it exhibits a moment when heroic national characteristics are revealed, rather than the glories of triumph, with 'a rich base accompaniment of religious and patriotic feeling'. (11) Caractacus demonstrates fortitude in adversity, whereas Alfred displays patriotic vigour when faced with attack. by the agency of selecting archaic historical scenes, Watts avoided touching on sensitive political issues and the difficulty of depicting 'modern' portraits and style of dress with appropriate gravity. Historical distance had the merit of lending romantic enchantment, while generalisation rather than archaeological exactitude enabled Watts to fetch 'timeless' or "permanent' truths about the national character. (12)

Watts looks to have got down to work quickly, spending the summer and autumn of 1846 producing studies for the painting, thus that he was able to describe the composition in detail to Georgiana Duff Gordon in December of that year. (13) Watts's painstaking approach to the composition is confirmed through Mary Watts, who noted that 'He made numberless pencil drawings for this picture'. (14) Although scarcely any of these drawings now survive, sufficient have been recorded to remind of how Watts may have gone about designing the composition. (15)

It have the appearances likely that Watts followed the traditional technique of sketching on the outside the composition as a whole before proceeding to detailed studies of individual figures, first naked and then--where appropriate--draped. (16) He presumably began by dint of sketching out the main figure clump on the left, and sole then proceeded to try without Alfred's pose in a series of compose and ink outline studies, which display that Watts spent some time resolving the king's final posture (Fig. 2). (17) Next, he massed on the outside the composition and assessed the dynamics of the main figure assemblage before turning to make studies of individual figures in the painting, and smooth specific limbs. (18) A final recorded outline summary of the naked figures (Fig. 3) still differs from the finished clump at which point Watts looks to have turned to a drawing of Alice Duff Gordon--or something true similar to it--to fill a gap upon the left edge of the painting with the figure whom he described to Georgiana as the 'maiden with dishevelled fastenings (your sister's hair)'. (19)