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Lot Essay
The picture dates from 1879 and the subject was explained in the catalogue of the Watts memorial exhibition in 1905 as follows: 'In a chamber the young wife lies on her couch, toying with a pet bird, careless of the disorder of the house; at the door appears hungry-eyed Poverty, in the form of a half-clad man; whilst Love, taking fright at the sight of this dread figure, escapes by the window.' Watts himself warned the picture's first owner, William Moss, not to 'misread' it. 'I never intended to imply anything so immoral as that Poverty in the abstract should frighten away love. You will see that carelessness and indifference to domestic duties, shown by general disorder, doors of cupboards hanging by broken hinges, etc. - have in reality left the door open to the intruder.'
The picture is unusual for Watts. The colouring is much brighter than his normal palette, and although a moral element is involved, indeed spelt out by the artist with uncharacteristic clarity, he treats it with such lightness of touch that the picture takes on the quality of an idyll. There is an oil sketch (15 x 19¾ in.) in the Carlisle Art Gallery, and when this was exhibited at Whitechapel in 1974 the cataloguers went so far as to suggest parallels in eighteenth-century prints of lovers surprised. Le Barbier's La Prudence en Défaut and The Death of the Earl from Hogarth's Marriage à la Mode were the two examples quoted. Whether Watts was really thinking in such terms, even unconsciously, is hard to say. What does seem likely is that he had in mind, for the composition if not the subject, Vincenzo Catena's painting of St Jerome in his Study in the National Gallery, London (no. 694). Although he obviously peoples the scene quite differently, there is a marked similarity in the architecture, while the open cupboards which Watts uses to symbolise the young wife's slovenliness are distinctly foreshadowed in the Catena, where they reveal the Saint's library of books. The correspondence would be no more than intriguing if Watts had not copied the Catena, his copy last appearing on the market when it was included in Christie's house-sale at Frankham, Mark Cross, Crowborough, East Sussex, on 25 September 1989, lot 336 (illustrated in catalogue). Its date is not known but must be later than 1862, when the St Jerome was bought by the National Gallery from the Manfrin collection in Venice. It then bore an attribution to Giovanni Bellini, the name of Catena being suggested by Crowe and Cavalcaselle in 1871.
We are grateful to Richard Jefferies, Curator at the Watts Gallery, for his help in preparing this entry.
The picture is unusual for Watts. The colouring is much brighter than his normal palette, and although a moral element is involved, indeed spelt out by the artist with uncharacteristic clarity, he treats it with such lightness of touch that the picture takes on the quality of an idyll. There is an oil sketch (15 x 19¾ in.) in the Carlisle Art Gallery, and when this was exhibited at Whitechapel in 1974 the cataloguers went so far as to suggest parallels in eighteenth-century prints of lovers surprised. Le Barbier's La Prudence en Défaut and The Death of the Earl from Hogarth's Marriage à la Mode were the two examples quoted. Whether Watts was really thinking in such terms, even unconsciously, is hard to say. What does seem likely is that he had in mind, for the composition if not the subject, Vincenzo Catena's painting of St Jerome in his Study in the National Gallery, London (no. 694). Although he obviously peoples the scene quite differently, there is a marked similarity in the architecture, while the open cupboards which Watts uses to symbolise the young wife's slovenliness are distinctly foreshadowed in the Catena, where they reveal the Saint's library of books. The correspondence would be no more than intriguing if Watts had not copied the Catena, his copy last appearing on the market when it was included in Christie's house-sale at Frankham, Mark Cross, Crowborough, East Sussex, on 25 September 1989, lot 336 (illustrated in catalogue). Its date is not known but must be later than 1862, when the St Jerome was bought by the National Gallery from the Manfrin collection in Venice. It then bore an attribution to Giovanni Bellini, the name of Catena being suggested by Crowe and Cavalcaselle in 1871.
We are grateful to Richard Jefferies, Curator at the Watts Gallery, for his help in preparing this entry.