New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-09-01
THE WATTS EXHIBITION.
rru NOTES ON HIS ARTAND HIS HISTORY,

In another month the pictures lent py MI ". -
Watts r. A.. 90 the Metropolitan Museum VIII NC
on their way to York. Mr.. Watts has acted
In this matter with generosity characteristic oil
HIM. Mr.. Frank Millett, who has conducted .no
negotiations for the Museum, gave him to under
,,ana that a section of the art world IN America
was no longer content to live under the almost ex-
ciusive influence of modern French art. There
were vouug men who longed to see what the ART oil
England had to say for itself, and this is the kmu
Of appeal to which Mr.. Watts has yielded.
Ii is no light thing for artist to give his con-
sent TO request for the loan of his real precious
work ior exhibition three thousand miles away ana
for an absence lasting all through the winter Inc
risks cannot be covered by insurance, though inc
pictures are, of course, insured. Inc money ''0
Of them is but part of their value, and IN MI
Watts's case, not the largest part, as VIII sno"
YOU in a moment. If they 60 TO the bottom OF tnc
Atlantic they will be paid for but how are the IN
,uries due TO mere locomotion TO be estimated, and
who will pay for these IL is no unheard of thing
for n great picture to be destroyed on its travels
Ono Of Mr. Mllais's met such a fate, so did one of
Mr. Burne Joness more recently. But there Is
process of moro subtle deterioration 10
be feared II Is known that the long
continued shaking and jar of Journey
by rail first loosens and then detaches the paint
from the canvas. There is less chance of this when
IN the long run the pitless vibration of steamer
must do much the same mischief rs the more vio-
lent agitation of tram. Greater less, there II
Is; the picture viii not return from long voyage
autc the Same thing II was at the start. or otber
accidents by food and field there ia no need to
speak Il may he hoped that the gildcd youth of
New-York do not poke their sticks, nor the strong
minded females their umbrellas, at the pictures
which interest them. Climate in any case, ~ not
without it's influence. and all these chances OF III
together are enough to mako any artist not filed
with public spirit hesitate before acccdtng TO such
n proposal. MIR. Watss act is proof enough of
genuine good will TO America and OF paramount de-
yotion to the interest of art.
OF the pictures you will see not few are destined
by Mr.. Watts ultimately for some public collection
in England. The portraits will bo likely TO 90 To
the National Portrait Gallery in South kcnSlngton
The pictures of Imagination may 60 to the National
Gallery The best of of what Mr.. Watts leaves
behind him will, it has long been uud rstood by his
friends be bequeathed the artists gift to his
fellow countrymcn-that beyond all things else
is the source of his anxiety about their safety
Ii NAV be assumed that Mr. Watts feels himself
honored by the American proposal to which he as
sents. The Metropolitan Museum addresses itself
TO him as to representative of what is best in the
art of England The directors have been well
advised in doing so; not less well because Mr..
Watts holds a place apart. His work is IN no sense
typical; it is exceptional If the Museum wanted
merely an erage specimen of average academ'cal
production 1t Is not Mr.. Watts to whom
they would have applied. In an age when
painting has become largely commercial
Mr. Watts has deliberately sacrificed his pecuniary
Interests TO principle and to pure ambition mean
to an ambition pure IN its nature and not vulgar
He has received. 1t Is true, large sums for his
pictures and it would be altogether mistake to
think of him as in any way resembling those unap-
preciated and miseraby unsuccessful geniuSeS-
some Of them slightly ragi-comlc-of whom Hay
don was a conspicuous example. His pictures have
had ready sale enough during the last forty years.
whenever he has cared to sell them. His portraits
have always been in demand. lie has earned
good income built himself beautiful house to re-
place the old one which was pulled down, and the
new mansion to which the old name Little Holland
House is still fondly attached, is one of the at
fractions of that famous street of art-palaces to
which every foreigner of distinction makes
p.lsrima &C. 1t is not at all. therefore, an appeal
for sympathy sprinIing from insufficient means
that is to be be made for Mr.. Watts.
But what he has done, and what is meant by
sacriice Is this. lie has gwen during this long
career bout one-third of his time to tho painting
o. pictures which were either commissions or OF
suh character as to be sold at once at the artists
The Otner TO-lulItlS Oi tlch A'dl uo mas
devoted TO the practice of the art he himself cared
for remember once standing before the magniii-
cent Love and Death" aud saying something
about the imuense energy and impressveneSs OF
fine chef figure YES" answered Mr. Watts,
THAT il the only really popular pctu re / ever
painted" Nobody else wOuld have thought of max
ing SO wild a statement as that. for many of Mr.
Wattss pictures, not to speak Of his art as whole
have long been a nired. and long since attained
arank which can only 10 called classical. Bat ths
pathetic speech does after all indicate, though with
nm artists plctureSqueneSs and with great cNagger-
etion the remoeneS, of Mr.. Watts from the Fhiiis-
tnsm Of the day. The aim of his life has been the
ennobling of English art. You will rccollect, per
haps. that extraordinary harangue of the late Lord
Beaconsfed delivered at of the an
nual Royal Academy dinners, in which he
declared that the leading Characteristic
of English painting imagination. The weary
old man had gone the rounds of the gallery that
afternoon. gazing blankly on canyaScs still more
blank, aud having seen that in the great number OF
these productions poverty of conception was even
more conspicuous than ignorant technique, had
amused himself by propoundng the most startling
paradox he could think Of and 50 described the art
before him a. imaginative art. If any great picture
by Mr. Watts had then hung on the walls it might
have justified the adjective aud tanned the sar-
casm into serious truth. But il Is given 10 few men
10 see the influence of tner best work show itself
on n great number Of their contemporaries and
Mi Watts is not one of tho tcv. He has lived
life of poetic beauty lie mas filed his mind with
original conceptions and stnyen e. record them on
canvas. lie has acted on the view which Mr.. Rus
Kin first perhaps lie in some degree acceptable to
the British public, that art has Just as high and
serious place IN lilo literature or science, or
perhaps religion. He has ever maintained that it had
function to perform and that within certain clear
limitations, it was quite as competent to express
what is best intellectually and spiritually as any of
its rivals. / can imagine that to Nh. Watts it has
always seemed that England, the intellectual peer
of any nther cnnn1rY III The world In any age OF the