Black Chalk Study for 'The Minotaur'

Work height: 75 cm
Work width: 57 cm
Frame height: 98 cm
Frame width: 78.5 cm

This black and white chalk drawing of the Minotaur, the mythological half-man half-bull, was likely a study after Watts’s 1885 painting of the same subject, currently in the Tate Gallery. The creature is depicted looking out on the Sea of Crete where a distant ship carries the maidens and youths that will soon be sacrificed to him. Watts was inspired to depict the Minotaur after reading “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon,” an exposé on child prostitution in London that appeared over several numbers of the Pall Mall Gazette. He painted the work in a burst of creativity the following morning and most likely drew this version after the final painting was completed. Text by Chloe Ward

        When describing this work in 1906 John Ernest Pythian described this work as showing, “the bestial monster of Crete, leaning over the rampart of his castle, crushing a helpless bird beneath his hoofs, and watching with impatient eagerness the approaching vessel bringing him the youths and maidens upon whose flesh he longs to glut his brutal appetite” [1].  However, Watts intended a deeper meaning to this work which serves as social criticism. In the catalogue of the works by G.F. Watts which Mary Watts compiled after his death Mary provides a brief history of this work and hints on this meaning when she wrote “[the Minotaur was] painted very rapidly at a time when the conscience of the public had been stirred by the publication of an indictment of the existing moral standard with the results of the debasement of this standard” [2]. However, in this short description Mary only provides a clue that this work sought to address a moral standard within contemporary society.

        Writing in 1903 Hugh Macmillan provides a deeper analysis of this work and highlights how Watts used the Minotaur to depict the horrors of child prostitution. He wrote

Watts has made use of the Minotaur, the old Cretan legend, to illustrate the degrading effect of vice, which is always associated with cruelty in its most hateful form. It changes the man into a beast, and puts all his higher faculties under the dominion of the sensual and brutal ones… He presents to us the hideous bullheaded Minotaur alone, leaning over the battlements of the Palace of Knossos, looking out to sea, awaiting the bringing of his prey, the nine youths and maidens that Athens had to furnish to satisfy his dreadful lust, and crushing in the very wantonness of his rage a little bird under his hoof. The artist acknowledged that this picture was painted after reading Mr Stead's gruesome articles in the Pall Mall Gazette on " The Maiden Tribute  of Modern Babylon." Watts was deeply impressed with the urgency of making these revelations, shocking and repellent as they were in one sense, as the only means of drawing attention to the dreadful evil and remedying it. And he felt constrained to further the cause by presenting to the eye the embodiment of the cruelty and power of vice in this horrible form, so that every one who saw it might not only abhor it, but seek to remove it off the face of the earth, in the spirit of Theseus, and slay it…. Watts leaves the rest of the story to our own fancy, and suggests that the only Theseus that can destroy the Minotaur and rid the world of its baleful tribute of youth and beauty — is love pure and unselfish [3].

Here Macmillan provides the full context for this work. Like Mary he notes that Watts based this work on an articles he read, but Macmillan provides the name of the article and describes that it addressed vice in society. These articles actually focused on child prostitution in London and urged Parliament to raise the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen. Moreover, Macmillan provides an explanation for using the minotaur to represent society in this case as it is looking out to sea waiting for its next sacrifices from Athens- an idea with the author Stead also suggested in his articles. He goes on to note that Watts left this painting open to the viewers’ interpretation from there and that it can be seen as a call to action to remedy this situation.

        Later Watts scholars take the analysis of this work further using Watts’s thoughts on the purpose of art. Using Watts’s own words Gould, Underwood, and Jeffries note how this work fits perfectly with his ideas on art. They note that Watts himself wrote a catalogue entry for this work when it was displayed at the Walker Art Gallery in which he stated that the purpose of art was not to amuse, but rather to point both the beautiful and bestial in society [4].  Ward also stresses this point when discussing this work. She states, “Watts believed that all artists must have both a message and a mission, and therefore aimed to paint works that would allow his viewers to better understand the troubles of modern society” [5]. Like Gould, Underwood, and Jeffries here Ward points out that Watts believed art should help people see and understand the problems of society using this work as a prime example.  

Footnotes:

[1]    John Ernest Phythian, George Frederick Watts, page 101.

[2]    Mary Watts, Catalogue of Works by G.F. Watts, page 100.

[3]   Hugh Macmillan, The Life-work of George Frederick Watts, R.A., pages 132-133.

[4]   Veronica Franklin Gould, Hilary Underwood, and Richard Jeffries, “63. The Minotaur, 1885,” The Vision of G F Watts (ed. Veronica Franklin Gould), page 70.

[5]   Chloe Ward, The Drawings of G.F. Watts, pages 81.

Text by Dr Ryan Nutting