The Mid-day Rest also known as The Drey Horses

Painting height: 137.2 cm
Painting width: 154.9 cm
Frame height: 170 cm
Frame width: 188 cm

The Mid-day Rest also known as The Drey Horses; subject picture-social critique in the form of a genre subject featuring the figure of a labourer by his cart feeding birds within suburban landscape.

Mary Watts, in works she completed about G.F. Watts after his death, provided background information on the creation of this work. In the catalogue of the works by G.F. Watts she described three different versions of this work. When she recounted the large version of this work she provided the inspiration for this painting. She wrote, “The painted believed that this fine breed of horses was under the changes of time likely to disappear. He made the necessary studies from a fine pair of dray horses with their carman left by Messrs. Trueman, Hanbury, Burton, and Co. Ltd” [1].  Here Mary noted how G.F. Watts wished to create an image depicting this breed of horses before they disappeared.  Regarding this version of this painting Mary provided little information only noting, “This was probably the canvas upon which the composition was first designed, but not completed” [2]. Here Mary notes that the version held by the Watts Gallery is likely the first version of this work.

In Volume 1 of The Annals of An Artist’s Life Mary expanded upon this description.  She wrote:

Some years before (in 1863), the dray, the horses, and the carman were lent as models to Signor through the kindness of Mr. Charles Hanbury. Believing that this particularly fine breed of horses would, under the inevitable changes of time, practically disappear, he had already approached a firm of brewers, making known his wish to paint these animals, and had politely asked the firm if they could see their way  to lend a pair to him for such a purpose. For answer he had received a curt refusal, with the information that the firm required no such advertisement. On hearing this Mr.Hanbury, anxious to vindicate the honour of brewers, immediately wrote to assure Signor that Messrs. Hanbury, Trueman, and Co. would be proud to send him, at any time, the finest specimen they could select of both carman and horses. Accordingly in Little Holland House garden the picture was painted, a special arrangement of temporary roofing being set up round the canvases upon which he made the necessary studies [3].

Like above, in this description Mary emphasized how G.F. Watts wanted to depict this breed of horses in a painting. However, she expands upon her description in the catalogue by noting the difficulty G.F. Watts experienced trying to obtain horses for models as well as the location where G.F, Watts set up this scene so that he could paint it.

Contemporaries of G.F. Watts focused upon this work to note how Watts depicted horses and his attention to detail. When describing this work in 1882 Cosmo Monkhouse noted:

The painter, as may be seen in many of his pictures, has studied animals with great care and to admirable purpose; but there is still reason for surprise at the splendid modelling and grand drawing of these magnificent horses. The same sense of fitness which characterises all his work is evident in the background of broad horse-chestnut leaves and red-brick wall, in harmony with the grandiose simplicity of the whole design [4].

Like other contemporaries of Watts here Monkhouse not only praised his attention to detail, but also noted how well he depicted this breed of horses and the care he placed into depicting these animals. While noting that Watts originally titled this work, “In the Suburbs” and that he meant it to depict how modern improvements were erasing older ways of life Macmillan also noted how Watts depicted these animals as admirable and noble [5]. When describing this work in 1906 Phythian noted that G.F. Watts must have possessed a fondness for horses as Watts depicted their strength and beauty several times in paintings and sculptures [6]. While all of these authors don’t focus on the themes found within this painting they all single out this painting of G.F. Watts’s attention to detail in this work which also uses symbols to depict larger ideas or concepts.

Footnotes:

[1]    Mary Watts, Catalogue, page 37.

[2]    Mary Watts, Catalogue, page 38.

[3]   Mary Watts, The Annals of an Artist’s Life, Volume 1, pages 282-283.

[4]   Cosmo Monkhouse, “The Watts Exhibition,” Magazine of Art 5 (1882), page 183.

[5]   Hugh Macmillan, The Life-work of George Frederick Watts, R.A., pages 220-223.

[6]   John Ernest Phythian, George Frederick Watts, pages 177-178.

Text by Dr Ryan Nutting