George Frederic Watts OM RA (British, 1817 – 1904), Studies of Mischief, circa 1873

George Frederic Watts OM RA (British, 1817 – 1904).

Studies of Mischief, circa 1873.

Pen and brown ink on paper.

6.1/2 x 8.3/8 in. (16.5 x 21.3 cm.).

Provenance: From the private estate of David Loshak, writer, lecturer, professor of Art History, and art collector. [Author of 'George Frederic Watts 1817-1904', 'The Art of Thomas Girtin', and 'Munch', written in Danish and translation].; Anon. sale, Christie's, London, 14 Dec. 2016, lot 13 (part).; Private Collection, UK.

Literature: Mary Seton Watts, 'Catalogue of Watts's Subject Pictures', 101a.; Veronica Franklin Gould, 'G. F. Watts. The Last Great Victorian’, New Haven & London, 2004, p.139.

Note: Studies for the painting first exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1878 and now in the collection of the National Gallery of Scotland, represent Humanity. The artist’s wife Mary wrote, Watts intended ’to contrast the animal man with the spiritual’. The finished picture shows Mischief trapping her male pursuer, Humanity, in a bramble thicket.

In experimenting with line, these studies are particularly interesting in view of the artist’s point that ‘Criticism stops short nearly always, it considers a picture only as a work of the brush and seldom takes the wider view, tho’ all the greatest works of art are a happy combination of fine workmanship, nobility in line and colour, with nobility of spiritual and intellectual idea.'

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance