Sympathy

Painting height: 66 cm
Painting width: 53.3 cm

A portrait with an intriguing title, this work is thought to depict Katharine Webster, Mary Watts’s nurse-companion. Watts had previously honoured the deeds of eminent Victorians in his ‘Hall of Fame’ series, but in this portrait, he celebrates an everyday hero, the nurse. Webster is presented as a dignified, authoritative figure. The allegorical title alludes to a wider message: praise for the compassion shown by the nursing profession.

Unusually for Watts, the title of this portrait does not name the sitter. According to Mary Watts, it portrays her nurse-companion Katharine Webster, of whom very little is known. On painting the portrait Watts ‘remarked with astonishment on the difficulty of portraying the face in full view’ [1].

Set against a dark green background, Webster is painted in a standing position, wearing a dark overcoat, with a high white blouse collar visible underneath a deep brown necktie, which is tied in a loose bow. The colour and texture of the necktie is mirrored in the head dress which Webster wears. Her hair is flatly parted and contained within her head dress. As such, the face is fully exposed and allowed Watts to detail the nurse’s fine bone structure, with her arched eyebrows and high cheekbones.

The strange symmetry which extends beyond the face into the severe parting of the hair and the concentric half circles of the hair band and the head dress, as if to create a harsh halo. Indeed, closer inspection of the paint in the background surrounding the head indicates that an alteration was made and suggests that the headdress which cascades down behind Webster, may have original been more voluminous.

Despite expressing difficulty at painting a face head-on, and although it is not a format that he used frequently, head-on portraits had featured in his early portraiture, including in Lady Sophia Dalrymple (COMWG.200, 1851) and The Sisters (COMWG.137, 1850-1851). In his later career he would attempt a full-frontal portrait again when he painted his adopted daughter Lilian (COMWG.123, 1904). Sympathy, however, remains a rare example of head-on portrait in a smaller format and focussing purely on the head. A new interest in symmetry was not restricted to his portrait paintings however, as late subject pictures including After the Deluge, (COMWG.45, 1885-91) and The All-Pervading, 1887 show him experimenting with regular and balanced compositions.

A portrait or a subject painting? Although a portrait the work is not included in Mary’s catalogue of portraits but is instead included in her volume of subject paintings. This may be indicative of how the artist himself regarded the painting. Watts of course had painted another nurse during his career, although he was unable to complete the portrait of Florence Nightingale.

By choosing Sympathy as the allegorical title of this work alludes to a wider message: praise for the compassion shown by the nursing profession. In contrast, another reading is possible as the severe symmetry of the work and the blankness of the nurse’s expression suggests ‘the emotionally detached face of professionalism’ [2].

When it was exhibited at the Society of Portrait Painters in 1895, the work was listed in the catalogue as Sympathy: A Portrait and was received positively by the critics as ‘very tender and pathetically expressive […] quite a masterpiece of harmony and colour’ [3]. Irrespective of its title, the painting continues to intrigue as no absolute reading is possible of the work. Its full-frontal pose and direct gaze, however, does not fail to offer an instant engagement with the viewer [4].

Explore:

Lilian [COMWG.123]

Florence Nightingale [COMWG 152] 

Lady Sophia Dalrymple [COMWG.200] 

The Sisters [COMWG.137]

After the Deluge[COMWG.145]

Footnotes:

[1] Mary Seton Watts, Catalogue of Portraits by G.F. Watts O.M. R.A., Vol. I, c.1915, p.141.

[2] Marks Bills and Barbara Bryant, G.F. Watts: Victorian Visionary (New Haven and London: Yale University Press in association with Watts Gallery Compton, 2008), p.258.

[3] Athenaum, 19 October 1895, p.540.

[4] Marks Bills and Barbara Bryant, G.F. Watts: Victorian Visionary (New Haven and London: Yale University Press in association with Watts Gallery Compton, 2008), p.258.

Further Reading:

Marks Bills and Barbara Bryant, G.F. Watts: Victorian Visionary (New Haven and London: Yale University Press in association with Watts Gallery Compton, 2008).

Wilfred Blunt, ‘England’s Michelangelo’: A Biography of George Frederic Watts (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1975).

Mary Seton Watts, Catalogue of Portraits by G.F. Watts O.M. R.A., Vol. I, c.1915.

Text by Dr Stacey Clapperton