WATTS ON DOING A PORTRAIT OF LORD SELBORNE WATTS (George Frederic, 1817-1904, O.M., R.A., Painter and Sculptor)

Fine Series of Four Autograph Letter Signed to “Dear Lady Sophia” the first saying that he is “gratified as I ought to be by the wish that among so many good portrait painters I should be selected. I have never been a portrait painter, though I have painted portraits, my desire always being to devote such experience & ability as I might have towards the endeavour with the greater Poets, after making the world if not wiser & better a little more joyful. No longer being absolutely obliged for bread & cheese, though far from wealthy, to paint portraits & accepting the verdict that my work in that direction is very unequal & not having the eyesight of earlier times (I am in my 76th year) I have for some time absolutely declined to paint portraits Professionally! I cannot run the risk of disappointing any one but myself! I have in this case great difficulty in refusing & perhaps might find time to paint Lord Selborne for m y own gallery of representative men on the understanding that the benchers of Lincoln’s Inn might claim it if they much cared to have it, but I cannot help feeling there are much better... portrait painters, indeed I could strongly recommend Sir J. Millais...”, 3 sides 8vo., 7th May, the next promising to “arrange sittings, I am glad you like my new Gallery picture, I think the subject beautiful. I am pleased also that you were interested in my Gallery at L.H.M. some of the best pictures are away on loan, the Gallery is open in the afternoon... I shall ask you kindly to let me have here any photographs you may have of Lord Selborne that I may get the characteristics into my head...”, 2 sides 8vo., 10th May, the third says he has “received from Mr Dixon a photograph... which being from a picture is no use to me, I do not want another man’s impression. If I get anything from it, it can only be that I ought not to undertake the portrait as I do not think I can paint one so likely to give satisfaction...”, 1 side 8vo., 17th May and finally he hopes “you will not think me changeable but when Lord Selborne sat I was struck with the spread of the fine forehead, on reflection I find the wig though generally a great advantage... in this instance... a cost too great to submit to... enable me to get rid of the ordinary abomination...”, 1 side 8vo., 14th June, the first three on Limnerslease, Guildford headed paper, the last from Little Holland House, Kensington, all

Watts is famous for his portraits, vast canvases and designs for murals in the Houses of Parliament, and symbolic pictures such as ‘Hope’.
Probably written to the third daughter of Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne (1812-1895, lawyer and Politician). Sophia Matilda (1852-1915) was named after her great-great-aunt, Princess Sophia Matilda of Gloucester. She was a writer of fiction and married Amable Charles Franquet, Comte de Franqueville, in 1903.
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet PRA (1829-1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
George Frederic Watts was renowned as one of the great portrait painters of the later Victorian era. He was at the height of his success when Lincoln’s Inn commissioned a portrait from him of Roundell Palmer, Earl of Selborne in 1892. Numerous 19th century portraits of famous judges are displayed in the Great Hall and the Drawing Room and Selborne painted by Watts represents one of the best of them. Watts was commissioned by the Benchers of Lincoln’s Inn for £500 to paint “a head as fine as Mannings”, a reference to Watts’s portrait of Cardinal Manning. However, Watts painted a much larger picture than the head and shoulders which was expected and asked for another £100 which was refused by the Benchers. The painting did end up where intended, when Selborne’s family later presented the work to Lincoln’s Inn in 1896.

Item Date:  1892

Stock No:  42173      £575

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