New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-09-17

with barley water: summer and winter, never
any change. Even out Of this very simple fare
Watts. if he was tired. would evolve a tragic
seIf-reproach. To have as much as that distressed
him: and when he thought Of all the people who
were starving he could hardly eat itP' The story
Is characteristic. Since the idea of painting for
money was merely loathsome to him. the sale OF
a picture somehow getting on his nerves. 10
matter what the circumstances were. he got into
the habit not only of eschewing tuxuries, but OK
rubbing along in the simplest possible fashion,
a dreamer shrinking like child from the hard
realities of life. 1t gave his personality d curl
GUS aIoofness but it did not make him any tie
less Iovable On the contrary his friends seem
only to have cared for him the more in proper
ton as he confirmed himself in his detached. r.
Elective ways. They called him "Signor,' looked
upon him as upon a being peculiarly apart fem
themselves, and entered his sphere, if not with
bated breath. at all events with a consciousness
that they were treading what was in some s1rt,
consecrated ground. A friend of his once sad
to Mrs harrington, There is something about
Watts which would make it impossible for any
one to say a coarse thing in his presence
Mrs harrington has some interesting notes
on her painters methods. He did not care to
work from models, though, OF course, the ex-
perience was not unknown to him At the same
time. he was patient and even assiduous OBJ
server of reality He used to go in the after
moons to the aquarium TT taught him much
in his study of the human form to watch the
acrobatic performances which took place there
He took an interest in Zazelle, the S1rl who
was shot from the cannon, and painted a strlk-
ing head of her" But mostly he got his in
spiration from the EIgin Marbles and from the
greatest of the Venetians. He told me- says
Mrs harrington, The was always seeing Titan
in nature One evening. as we were standing
on the lawn in his garden at Little Holland
House. and the warm light of late afternoon
was weaving threads of blue and gold through
the branches of a group of thorn trees, re-
member Watts exclaiTning, There, Is that not
Titian?'" Possibly, if he had thought less OF
Titan and less of the Greeks, and had drawn
some help from the springs of modern art. he
might have put even finer achievements TO his
credit But then he would not have been Watts.
the dreamer and the moralist, the man OF heart
as we'll as of BRAIN the old master born out OF
his time.
We are always coming back in this way to the
personal side of this picturesque figure in Vic
torian art, to the qualities which may not have
made him a great painter. but which. when
taken all together. somehow lift him above ths
little men. Mrs harrington throws light, as
we have indicated. his technical method
She tells us how he dried the oil out of his
coIors. and only used them when they were
nearly as dry as pastel. She tells Us how he
hated new brushes and would wear the out
side bristIes down on background, or by merely
rubbing them on a hard surface till they be-
came stiff little pyramid. the shape Of a stump
used for chalk drawings" and she describes
other expedients common in his studio But
above all her book is to be valued for the por-
trait it presents Of a man good IS he was
gifted We may add that it is enriched with
many interesting Illustrations well reproduced