Evolution

Painting height: 167.6 cm
Painting width: 134.6 cm
Frame height: 203 cm
Frame width: 169 cm

The publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859 introduced the idea of evolution to a public audience. One of Watts’s late paintings, Evolution was his way of showing the concepts introduced by Darwin through symbolism. It likely formed part of Watts’s never realised ‘House of Life’ series. Evolution was symbolised by the ‘primeval mother’, a nude woman sitting atop a rock. She holds back her thick hair to gaze out at the distance. Below her, infants squabble amongst themselves while some cling to each other in safety. The picture expressed the uncertainty of mankind and its progression (or evolution) Watts perceived at the end of the nineteenth century.

Evolution is one of Watts’s most interesting, but not oft-spoken about, symbolist works. The publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859 introduced the idea of evolutionary theory to a public audience, opening new dialogues of science and creation. Watts himself was interested in the ideas posed by Evolutionary theory. Watts admired Charles Darwin, and wished to paint his portrait, however the scientist was only prepared to sit for his likeness from his home in Kent and unfortunately Watts never made the journey [1]. Watts was interested in the ways in which divine and scientific theories of evolution and human advancement could act in harmony. Evolution was his symbolic expression of these two seemingly disparate concepts.

The composition focuses on a nude woman, described as the ‘primeval mother’, who sits atop a rock or stump in a seemingly desolate landscape. Her hair is thick and golden, which she holds back from her face to peer into the distance. Below her are her children - a mass of naked infants who squabble and fight as well as cling to each other and reach for their mother.

There is a strong sculptural quality to the body of the mother figure. The muscular and angular squared torso which is almost androgenous in its proportions. This bold bodily form was common in Watts’s sculptural works such as Clytie,  (COMWG.152, 1865-1869) and Aurora (COMWG2007.957). These were in part inspired by the frescos and sculpture of Michelangelo which Watts had seen in Florence and Rome during his early years in Italy, particularly the ignudi or nides of the Sistine Chapel. The mother’s slightly leaning torso and upraised knee draw strong comparison with the celebrated antique sculpture the Belvedere Torso at the Vatican Museum [2]. In presenting the ‘primeval mother’ in this form and the use of colour which connects the figure with that of the ground below it, the mother becomes like the earth, or a mountainous form.

When exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1905, it was described as ‘the primeval mother of Conflict and Harmony, herself uncertain of the future of her offspring’ [3]. Infants as symbols of humanity were a common theme in Watts’s symbolist works including Spirit of Christianity, (COMWG.122, 1872-75) Slumber of the Ages, (COMWG.53, 1898-1901) and Peace and Goodwill (COMWG.2, 1887).

In presenting the conception of Evolution as a concerned mother overlooking humanity, it expressed the tensions felt between scientific and divine creation and the uncertainty in how we progressed with these concepts moving forward at the end of the nineteenth century. In the ‘House of Life’ series Watts may have been attempting to reconcile these two opposing concepts, creating one universal language of divine and scientific creation within one mural scheme.

Evolution was exhibited in the 1905 Royal Academy exhibition of Watts’s works [4]. In the same year, Mrs Emilie Russell Barrington includes the work as one of the paintings she felt the ‘deepest and innermost nature of Watts’s genius was recorded’[5]. However, for reasons currently unknown it was not included in Mary Seton Watts’s subject catalogue of Watts’s paintings, compiled in 1912.

Footnotes:

[1] Veronica Franklin Gould, G.F. Watts: Last Great Victorian (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2004), p.160.

[2] Francis Haskell & Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500-1900 (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1982).

[3] Exhibition of Works by the late George Frederick Watts, R.A. O.M… Winter Exhibition (London: Royal Academy, 1905) p.41.

[4] ibid.

[5] Mrs (Emilie) Russell Barrington, G.F. Watts: Reminisces (London, 1905), p.33.

Further Reading:

J. S. Huxley et. al, A Book that Shook the World: Essays on Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1958)

Text by Dr Nicole Cochrane