Study of Drapery for the Figure of 'Diana' in 'Apollo and Diana'

drawing height: 24 cm
drawing width: 25.5 cm
mount height: 50.5 cm
mount width: 40.5 cm

This watercolour on linen is a close study of the drapery for his monumental fresco Apollo and Diana. The finished fresco does not include the stars. Another related study shows the whole figure of Diana. Painting on gesso-coated linen with watercolour was not common. It may have given Watts a closer effect to the fresco than painting on paper or using oils. Another study for the same fresco cycle used oils on canvas and the colours are substantially brighter than the finished fresco. In true fresco painting, the pigments fuse to the wet white plaster as they dry, making the colours opaque and less saturated. Watts was a leading figure in the English fresco revival of the 1850s but many of his works, including the 7 Carlton House Terrace frescoes, did not age well.

This watercolour, closely related to another watercolour drawing (COMWG2006.27, 1854-1855) on prepared paper this closely observed study of drapery allowed Watts to test colour, composition, and minute details for the figure of Diana on the fresco of Apollo and Diana for 7 Carlton House Terrace (COMWGNC.1, 1854). Throughout his career, Watts paid careful attention to the movement and balance of drapery on his figures, following his admiration of the Greek sculptor Pheidias and the Parthenon sculptures. Mary Watts recorded Watts’ discussion, years later, with Charilaos Trikoupis (whom Mary calls Mr Tricoupi), the Greek prime minister, while on their honeymoon: ‘“In the work of Pheidias,” he explained, “the folds mean drapery; he was too wise to do more than say, 'This is a super-added material, loose, and adapting itself to the limbs which it encloses, as the foliage encloses the flower’” [1]. By contrast, Watts derided the drapery in paintings by Raphael as ‘academic,’ and looking ‘like [a] new blanket beside the Greek and the Venetian’ [2].

Drapery studies were an important part of Watts’ artistic practice, beyond specific studies for specific pictures. Like his friend Frederic Leighton, Watts treated drapery studies as essential exercises for developing one’s artistic eye and hand. The Watts Gallery holds numerous quick and more detailed studies of drapery in different media, from pencil on invitation cards (COMWG2007.337a, 1886) to more fully realised drawings like the present piece or preparatory works for other paintings like a study probably for the figure of Time in Time, Death, and Judgement (COMWG2007.638, 1880-1889).  Likewise, early in his development as an artist Watts made multiple, highly finished drawings of the Parthenon sculptures, which informed his interest in drapery as an expressive element in figural representation and led to his understanding of Pheidias as a master of draped figures [3].

The drapery for Apollo and Diana was key for Watts to infuse the otherwise static figures with a dynamic energy. The rest of the frescoes in 7 Carlton House Terrace depicted narrative subjects from Greek mythology, all with multiple figures in motion and fully developed landscapes. Apollo and Diana, by contrast, are shown against a flat gold background, standing stiffly upright and facing the viewer. Only their draperies, which blow in an unseen wind, enliven the composition. Their static, motionless qualities were not, however, a failure on Watts’ part, but support their role within the overarching fresco programme as figures symbolising universal or cosmic principles. Unlike the narrative scenes which represent the Elements, Apollo and Diana stand over the entire scene as the representations of the heavens and of the timeless, inhuman cosmos; their immobility and impassive expressions set them apart from the scenes of love, combat, and adventure elsewhere in the drawing room of 7 Carlton House Terrace. 

Footnotes:

[1] Mary Seton Watts, George Frederic Watts: the Annals of an Artist’s Life, vol. 2 (London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd, 1912) pp. 81-2.

[2] Mary Seton Watts, George Frederic Watts: the Annals of an Artist’s Life, vol. 1 (London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd, 1912) pp. 148.

[3] Watts Gallery- Artists' Village holds numerous sketchbooks with drawings after the Parthenon sculptures from the late 1840s and into the 1850s, and Watts owned plaster casts after some figures and reliefs, including Reclining Nude Male 'Illisus' (COMWG2007.941, 1851) and this plaster relief copy (COMWG2007.977, 1853).

Text by Dr Melissa Gustin