Olympus on Ida

Painting height: 66 cm
Painting width: 55.9 cm
Frame height: 93 cm
Frame width: 80 cm

Watt’s favourite model, Long Mary, stands in for the three goddess Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite in Watts’ version of the Judgement of Paris. Although Watts leaves off some traditional elements of the scene, such as Paris himself and the goddesses’ various attributes, the title makes the subject clear. In the Judgement of Paris, the three most beautiful goddesses on Olympus were fighting over a golden apple inscribed ‘to the fairest.’ Paris was chosen as an impartial judge, and decided Aphrodite was the most beautiful after she bribed him with the love of Helen, the most beautiful woman in Greece. The competition took place on Mount Ida.

In Mary’s complete picture catalogue of her husband’s work, she noted ‘The original painting and one that Mr Watts valued for a certain opalesque quality. He did not care to carry it further, for fear that something of this might be lost’ [1].  A second, larger and more finished version of this painting is now at the Art Gallery of South Australia, while a related composition with the more traditional title The Judgement of Paris is at Buscot Park [2]. The statuesque proportions of Watts’ model Mary Bartlett (actually Bartley), called Long Mary (COMWG.180, 1860-1869), are recognisable in the three figures. However, Mary only modelled for Watts during the latter half of the 1860s, and the present painting, dating to 1885, must have been worked up from memory and the stacks of drawings he had made of Mary Bartlett while she worked at Little Holland House. The Watts Gallery holds numerous nude drawings of Mary from the period in various materials, as well as composition sketches for the paintings; the Royal Academy holds several related works on paper including composition sketches [3].

The arrangement of three nude female figures at various angles to the viewer made The Judgement of Paris a popular subject in Western art history. Many compositions of the subject derived from ancient sculptures of the Three Graces, which may have also been a possible title for Watts as he developed his picture. Watts would have seen several important sculptural versions of the Three Graces while travelling as a young man; the Louvre and the Vatican museums both hold highly influential examples, and modern versions, including one by Antonio Canova for the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey, were available in Britain and on the continent [4]. The National Gallery in London furthermore acquired Peter Paul Rubens’ The Judgement of Paris in 1844 [5]. While Watts seldom, if ever, ‘copied’ other works like Rubens or the sculptures, he was certainly art-historically informed while developing pictures like Olympus in Ida.

The picture’s subject, the Judgement of Paris, is a major event from the run up to the Trojan War and the Iliad, which Watts knew extremely well and from which Watts had painted subjects like Achilles and Briseis (COMWG.94, 1858-1860) earlier in his career. At the wedding of Achilles’ mother Thetis and father Peleus, the goddess Eris, angry at being left off the guest list, had thrown a golden apple inscribed ‘To the most beautiful’ or ‘to the fairest’ amongst the Olympian goddesses [6]. Unable to fight it out amongst themselves, the goddesses went to the Trojan prince Paris, then working as a shepherd on Mount Ida, who was known for his excellent and fair judgement. He was apparently unable to judge Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena with their clothes on, so they undressed for him and took the opportunity to offer him gifts in exchange for the prize. Hera, the wife of Zeus and goddess of marriage, offered to make Paris king of all men, Athena, goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare, offered him victory in battle, and Aphrodite, goddess of love and desire, offered him Helen, the most beautiful human woman. Aphrodite won the apple, Paris ran off from Sparta with Helen, and the Trojan War began.

Watts, however, leaves the impending consequences of this event off his canvas, as well as cutting out Paris, the apple, and most of the goddesses’ attributes or symbols of identity. Instead, the painting, painted in Watts’ loose late style and ethereal colour palette, is a study of the ideal female nude and atmospheric effect. Mary’s comment about its ‘opalesque’ effect might also describe similarly effervescent, mythological paintings and studies from the later years of Watts’ career, like Uldra (COMWGNC.21, 1884), Iris (COMWG.48, 1904), and Endymion (COMWG.150, 1903-1904).  Three versions of this composition were included in the 1905 memorial exhibition at the Royal Academy, while a fourth picture closely related to the Buscot Park canvas was at Sotheby’s in 2015 [7].

Footnotes:

[1] Mary Seton Watts, Catalogue of Subject Pictures by G.F. Watts O.M. R.A., v. I, c. 1912, p. 109.

[2] Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia, inv. 20146P17; Buscot Park, Faringdon Collection, Cat. 87.

[3] Royal Academy of Arts, London, 04/102.

[4] Louvre Museum, Paris, inv. MA287; Vatican Museums-Museo Pio-Clementino, inv. 810; Victoria and Albert Museum, A.4-1994.

[5] National Gallery, London, NG194.

[6] William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology vol. 3 (Boston: Charles C. Little & James Brown, 1849) p. 122.

[7] Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, Exhibition of works by the late George Frederick Watts, R.A. O.M. and the late Frederick Sandys (London: Clowes and Son), cats. 151, 216, 230; Sotheby’s London, Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite and British Impressionist Art, December 17, 2015, Lot 10.

Further Reading:

Brinsley Ford & John Christian. The Sixtieth Volume of the Walpole Society: 'The Ford Collection.' Vol. II, London: The Walpole Society, 1998.)

Ken Montague, ‘The Aesthetics of Hygiene: Aesthetic Dress, Modernity, and the Body as Sign,’ Journal of Design History Vol. 7, No. 2 (1994), pp. 91-112.

Text by Dr Melissa Gustin