The Sisters also known as Sophia Dalrymple and Sara Prinsep

Painting height: 231.1 cm
Painting width: 144.8 cm
Frame height: 255.5 cm
Frame width: 164 cm

A double portrait demonstrating the ‘stately ease and unconscious grace’ of the Pattle sisters. In this painting, Sophia Dalrymple (1829–1911) is presented on the left-hand side, standing beside her older sister Sara Prinsep (1816–1887). The setting reveals that it was painted at Little Holland House, where Watts became a permanent houseguest of Sara and her husband Thoby Prinsep from the early 1850s. The Anglo-Indian heritage of the sisters can be detected in their boldly, colourful clothing and jewellery. The clothing, setting and treatment of form in this painting demonstrate Watts’s interest in classicism and his preoccupation with fresco painting after his return from Italy. The painting has previously been dated circa 1850 to 1851.

Sara and Sophia (COMWG.200, 1851) were two of the seven Pattle daughters of James Pattle, an Indian civil servant and his French wife Adeline. Watts came to know the family through his infatuation with the second youngest daughter; Virginia (COMWG2007.701, 1849). After she married Lord Eastnor (later Lord Somers), Watts fell into a depression and Sara is believed to have tended to his health and lifted his spirits [1]. Shortly after, he was invited to stay at the home she established with her husband Thoby Prinsep (COMWWG.153, 1871) at Little Holland House and he became the focal point of the artistic community that gathered there.

In this double portrait which demonstrates the ‘stately ease and unconscious grace’ of the Pattle sisters, they wear unconventional bold coloured, simple robes [2]. Sophia’s green dress is offset with a golden paisley shawl which she drapes over her right arm. Sara, on the other hand, wears a red gown with white undress, paired with a blue cape fastened at her neck. Both wear Indian jewellery, suggestive of their heritage. Their red-brown hair is simple styled, but the curls are depicted using flat, uniform lines which radiate from the sister’s head like halos.

The rich colouring of their clothing sets them apart from their surroundings. The sky, classical balustrade and tiled floor are all executed in a subdued palette so as not to detract attention away from the two sisters.

Speaking to the art critic Marion Spielmann about this portrait of his mother and aunt, Val Prinsep (COMWG.577, 1880-1889) described the work as characteristic of Watts’s ‘unusual preference in his early years for not grouping his portrait-figures into a deliberate composition’ [3]. Indeed, there is no interaction between the two figures, despite how closely they are standing. Rather than leaning into one another, they appear to stand awkwardly alongside each other. Their relation to the space around them is also curious. The sisters appear to be standing on an outside terrace, with a balustrade visible behind them and a garden visible beyond that. Yet, no shadows are cast which grounds them to their position, and rather than inhabiting the space, they look as if they have been positioned on top of it.

The clothing, setting and treatment of form in this painting is demonstrative of Watts’s interest in classicism after his return from Italy. The monumentality of scale, the matt surface and the flat treatment of forms are all characteristics of the fresco painting technique which was favoured by Italian Renaissance painters between the 13^th and 16^th centuries.

Painted at Little Holland House for display in Little Holland House, this double portrait wasn’t exhibited until the 1905 memorial exhibitions where it was shown at the Royal Academy in London, Manchester City Art Gallery and the Laing Gallery in Newcastle. During this tour a critic from The Times branded The Sisters as ‘wilfully strange’ as it was ‘composed partly of flesh and blood, partly of architecture’ [4]. In her catalogue of works, Mary championed the work and noted that it was painted in ‘an incredibly short space of time’ and demonstrated the artist’s aim of ‘complete directness of execution which in his opinion was suitable to the design’ [5].

Explore:

Thoby Prinsep [COMWG.153]

Sophia Dalrymple [COMWG.200]

Lady Somers [COMWG.71]

Sketchbook drawings of Sara Prinsep [COMWG2014.11]

Virginia Pattle silverpoint portrait [COMWG2007.701]

Footnotes:

[1] Barbara Bryant, G.F. Watts : portraits; fame & beauty in Victorian society (London: National Portrait Gallery, 2004), p.15.

[2] M.H. Spielmann, G.F. Watts, R.A., O.M., as a Great Painter of Portraits: A Lecture, delivered in the Memorial Hall Manchester, 7th June 1905 (London, Sherratt & Hughes, 1905), p.22.

[3] M.H. Spielmann, G.F. Watts, R.A., O.M., as a Great Painter of Portraits: A Lecture, delivered in the Memorial Hall Manchester, 7th June 1905 (London, Sherratt & Hughes, 1905), p.22.

[4] Wilfred Blunt, ‘England’s Michelangelo’: A Biography of George Frederic Watts (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1975), pp.148-149.

[5] Mary Seton Watts, Catalogue of Portraits by G.F. Watts O.M. R.A., Vol. II, c.1915, p.?. In the catalogue, Mary lists the work as Mrs Thoby Prinsep with her sister Lady Dalrymple and dates the work as 1850.

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).

Barbara Bryant, G.F. Watts: Little Holland House and Gallery (Compton: Watts Gallery, 2009).

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

Barbara Bryant, G.F. Watts : portraits; fame & beauty in Victorian society (London: National Portrait Gallery, 2004).

M.H. Spielmann, G.F. Watts, R.A., O.M., as a Great Painter of Portraits: A Lecture, delivered in the Memorial Hall Manchester, 7th June 1905 (London, Sherratt & Hughes, 1905).

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

Text by Dr Stacey Clapperton