.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
A study for the figure of the goddess Diana in the ambitious scheme of murals that Watts painted in the mid-1850s at Lord Somers' London house, 7 Carlton House Terrace. In 1927 Sir Charles Holmes, then director of the National Gallery, pronounced these 'among the artist's very finest works' and 'one of the most important surviving records of English art in the grand style'. However, they were removed in 1966, two figures being transferred to 13 Carlton House Terrace, the Headquarters of the Crown Estate Commissioners, the rest finding a home at Malvern College, Worcestershire.
The model for the head of Diana in our sketch, itself like a fresco fragment, was Earl Somers's wife. Virginia Pattle (1826-1910) married Charles, Lord Eastnor (1819-1883) in 1850, two years before he became the third Earl Somers on his father's death. Renowned for the perfect oval of her face and a smile that 'lighted a room' with its radiance, she was the undisputed beauty among the seven Pattle sisters who figure so prominently in Watts' life. Her older siblings included Julia Margaret Cameron, the photographer, and Sara Prinsep, of whose salon at Little Holland House in Kensington Watts was the presiding genius. He lived there for twenty-four years (1851-75), painting not only the sisters and their relations but many of the celebrities who formed Mrs Prinsep's circle.
The model for the head of Diana in our sketch, itself like a fresco fragment, was Earl Somers's wife. Virginia Pattle (1826-1910) married Charles, Lord Eastnor (1819-1883) in 1850, two years before he became the third Earl Somers on his father's death. Renowned for the perfect oval of her face and a smile that 'lighted a room' with its radiance, she was the undisputed beauty among the seven Pattle sisters who figure so prominently in Watts' life. Her older siblings included Julia Margaret Cameron, the photographer, and Sara Prinsep, of whose salon at Little Holland House in Kensington Watts was the presiding genius. He lived there for twenty-four years (1851-75), painting not only the sisters and their relations but many of the celebrities who formed Mrs Prinsep's circle.