Lot Essay
George Frederic Watts, O.M., R.A. (1817-1904) was a portraitist, sculptor, landscape painter and symbolist and is considered to be one of greatest painters of the Victorian era. Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works such as Hope and Love and Life. Later in his life, Watts remarried, to Mary Fraser Tytler and together they built the Watts Gallery nearby their house Limnerslease in Surrey. The museum opened in April 1904, shortly before his death and remains open today.