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Lot Essay
Love and Death is one of Watts' most enduring images, of which he made several versions. In it the figure of Death slowly advances and calmly overpowers Love, without disturbing the dove at its feet. The present work is a study for the figure of Death, in which Watts explores the possible drapery.
Watts was commissioned to paint a fresco for the Great Hall of Lincoln's Inn in the mid 1850s, following his conception of a mural of Edmund Spenser's The Triumph of the Red Cross Knight for the new Palace of Westminster in 1852. The Lincoln's Inn project is vast, some 45 feet wide and 40 feet high, filling the north wall. Watts has gathered the great lawmakers and decision makers from throughout history in a composition which depicts 24 named figures, including Solon, Draco, Moses, and Confucius, and ten others, including monks, scribes, and a druid. Many of the figures are based on studies of Watts' friends.
We are grateful to Nicholas Tromans for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.
Watts was commissioned to paint a fresco for the Great Hall of Lincoln's Inn in the mid 1850s, following his conception of a mural of Edmund Spenser's The Triumph of the Red Cross Knight for the new Palace of Westminster in 1852. The Lincoln's Inn project is vast, some 45 feet wide and 40 feet high, filling the north wall. Watts has gathered the great lawmakers and decision makers from throughout history in a composition which depicts 24 named figures, including Solon, Draco, Moses, and Confucius, and ten others, including monks, scribes, and a druid. Many of the figures are based on studies of Watts' friends.
We are grateful to Nicholas Tromans for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.