Mrs G. F. Watts in a Straw Hat

Painting height: 64.6 cm
Painting width: 51.8 cm
Frame height: 87 cm
Frame width: 75 cm

Mrs G. F. Watts; bust-length female portrait in a lost profile of the artist's wife Mary Seton Watts (nee Fraser Tytler) painted on their honeymoon.;

Watts married Mary Seton Fraser Tytler on 20th November, 1886. The bride was thirty-three, the groom sixty-nine. This portrait of the recently married Mary was painted in Constantinople during the couple’s honeymoon tour of 1887. The focus of the painting, much like Undine, centres on the depiction of the female neck, a recurrent motif in Watts's art. The bare expanse of Mary’s neck is emphasised by the turn of her head and the gathering of her auburn hair into a knot under her hat. The neck is muscular and twisting yet its elongation and bare presentation in yellow, green and pink hues deem it also vulnerable and delicate.