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Gallery Text

This painting engages imagery and literature that Watts encountered on a trip to Greece in 1856. The reclining nude adopts the pose of a marble sculpture on the Parthenon’s pediment. Behind him, figures dive and wade in the water. The scene evokes narratives from ancient Greek poetry in which sirens’ songs lured sailors to rocky coastlines.

Watts completed four versions of this painting over 20 years. During this period, he developed a frame design favored by Victorian artists, known as the “Watts frame.” Seen here, this type of frame was inspired by an Italian Renaissance model. The ornamental moldings have a stylized acanthus pattern on the outer edge and a small leaf-bud pattern on the inner edge. Watts’s modern innovation was to apply gilding directly to the frame’s wide frieze, allowing the oak’s grain to show through. Another version of a Watts frame surrounds Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s "A Sea-Spell," nearby.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.207
People
George Frederic Watts, British (London, England 1817 - 1904 Limnerslease, Compton, England)
Title
The Genius of Greek Poetry
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1878
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230054

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2130, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Pre–Raphaelites and Their Legacy
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
66 x 53 cm (26 x 20 7/8 in.)
framed: 97.2 x 85.1 x 6.4 cm (38 1/4 x 33 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
The Rt. Honorable Lord Davey, sold [through his sale, Christie's, London, April 20, 1907, lot 85]; to Mary S. Watts, Compton, Surrey, sold [via Martin Birnbaum]; to Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York, 1928, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.207
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Loan Collection of Paintings by G. F. Watts, R. A., exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 1885), no. 121
  • Catalogue of Important Modern Pictures & a few works by Old Masters, auct. cat., Christie's, London (London, England, April 20, 1907), no. 85
  • Gabriel Mourey, D. -G. Rossetti et les Preraphaelites anglais, H. Laurens (Paris, France, 1909), p. 115
  • Mary S. Watts, George Frederic Watts: the Annals of an Artist's Life, The Macmillan Company (London, England, 1912), vol. I p. 235; vol. II, pp. 25-37
  • Rowland Alston, The Mind and Work of G. F. Watts, O.M., R.A., with introductory and special reference to the Watts Gallery, Compton, Guildford, Methuen & Co. (London, England, 1929), repr., no. 15
  • Charles Johnson, English Painting from the Seventh Century to the Present Day, George Bell and Sons, Ltd. (London, England, 1932), p. 235
  • Paintings and Drawings of the Pre-Raphaelites and their Circle, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1946), no. 98
  • Denys Sutton, "The Pursuit of Beauty", Apollo (June 1978), vol. CVII, no. 196, pp. 446-452, p. 450, fig. 10
  • Allen Staley, Victorian High Renaissance, exh. cat., Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Minneapolis, MN, 1978), p. 83
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 133, repr. as no. 80
  • Francesca Mitchell, "Technical Study of the Paintings by George Frederic Watts in the Collection at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, July 1990), Unpublished, pp. 1-22 passim
  • Christopher Newall, The Grosvenor Gallery Exhibitions: Change and Continuity in the Victorian Art World, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, 1995), p 134
  • Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone, The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910, exh. cat., Flammarion (Paris, France and New York, NY, 1997), under cat. no. 78
  • Chikashi Kitazaki and Mina Oya, ed., Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art (Ueno, 2002), pp. 126-127, cat. #29, color repr.
  • Mark Bills and Barbara Bryant, G.F. Watts: Victorian Visionary, exh. cat., Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven/London, 2008), under no. 48, p. 198

Exhibition History

  • Unidentified Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, 1881, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 01/01/1881 - 12/31/1881
  • Special Collection of Works by George Frederick Watts, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 01/01/1885 - 12/31/1885
  • Loan Collection of Paintings by G. F. Watts, R.A., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 05/01/1885 - 10/31/1885
  • Unidentified Exhibition, Nottingham Art Gallery, 1887, Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham, 01/01/1887 - 12/31/1887
  • Unidentified Exhibition, Birmingham Art Gallery, 1887, Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 01/01/1887 - 12/31/1887
  • Unidentified Exhibition, Jahresausstellung, 1893, Jahresausstellung, Munich, 01/01/1893 - 12/31/1893
  • Winter Exhibition: The Works of G. F. Watts, New Gallery, London, 01/01/1896 - 12/31/1897
  • Winter Exhibition: Works by the Late George Frederick Watts, R.A., O.M. and the Late Frederick Sandys, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 10/01/1905 - 12/31/1905
  • Catalogue of Works of G. F. Watts, R. A., New Gallery, London, 01/01/1906 - 12/31/1907
  • Paintings and Drawings of the Pre-Raphaelites and their Circle, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/08/1946 - 06/01/1946
  • The Pre-Raphaelites: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/04/1980 - 07/15/1980
  • Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 09/14/2002 - 12/08/2002
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004
  • 32Q: 2130 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/02/2022 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • ReFrame

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu