Watts Studios, Watts Gallery Artists’ Village, Compton, Surrey
Caroline Ikin gets an intimate glimpse of the lives of Victorian artist George Frederic Watts and his wife Mary
George Frederic Watts once represented all that was unfashionable about Victorian art, but with the recent opening of the Watts Studios in the Watts Gallery Artists’ Village in Compton, Surrey, his reputation is going from strength to strength. Watts has emerged from the shadows to regain his stature as a celebrated artist, and his wife, Mary Seton Watts, has been given long-overdue recognition for her artistic achievements.
This reversal of fortune is thanks to the renewal and reinvigoration of the Watts Gallery, which has been rejuvenated by injections of funding and inspirational leadership over the past five years. The Artists’ Village comprises the Watts Gallery (in an adjacent building to the studios), Watts Chapel, cemetery and pottery buildings. Now, with the opening of the Watts Studios, visitors can gain an insight into the Watts’s personal and professional lives.
The studios form the eastern end of Limnerslease, the house built in 1891 for the Wattses, which was acquired by the Trustees of the Watts Gallery in 2011. Limnerslease began as a winter residence for George and Mary, but gradually became their permanent home, where they could escape the smog of London. With a grant of £2.4m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Watts Studios at Limnerslease have opened to the public.
George’s studio has been restored and represented, and two additional galleries have been created to tell the story of Mary’s artistic vision and to explain the couple’s contribution to the community of Compton village. Guided tours take visitors around part of the house and there are plans to restore and reunite the rest of the house with the studios.
A new entrance to the studios has been created in an extension to the house, which complements the arts and crafts elements of the original architecture. The learning spaces and conservation studio on the lower floor are functional and modern. The details and colour schemes have clearly been informed by the Wattses’ artistic palette, but cleverly don’t look Victorian in any way. The stairs to the upper floor offer views over the landscape in which George found inspiration and Mary crafted a garden – it would be unfair to judge the landscaping so early in the studio project and in the growing season, but getting this right will be crucial to the visitor experience.
Intimate introduction
The Mary Watts Gallery occupies the original drawing room of the house, which Mary also used as her studio and where she held classes in terracotta modelling for the people of Compton village. The room – stripped bare with stylish modern shutters and lighting – is the perfect setting for a series of gesso panels designed by Mary for the chapel of the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot. The panels, which occupy three walls of the gallery, have been recently conserved and the careful lighting brings out their colours and gilding superbly. Visitors can examine the altar panels up close, and the exhibition display complements the experience of seeing Mary’s other beautiful work – the interiors of nearby Watts Chapel – in situ.
On a central table is a display revealing Mary’s gesso technique with a video and six plaster blocks in various stages of production, which visitors can touch. This display is simple and effective, and, together with some of her designs, a sketchbook and her recipe book (for plaster not cakes), gives a good insight into her design process. Her hand- decorated photograph album is also on display, with a facsimile of the book alongside for visitors to look through and appreciate the wit and delicacy of her artwork.
It would have been interesting to have similar facsimile copies of her sketchbooks and recipe book, which were tantalisingly opened at one page, hinting at further riches hidden from view.
The smaller Compton Gallery is lacking in purpose, but there are some treasures in this small space, including one of Mary’s diaries, kept regularly and written in her tiny handwriting. George’s Order of Merit is also on display, as well as an original weathervane from the roof of the gallery.
The striking purple walls form a surprisingly fitting backdrop to six of George’s paintings and a selection of reproduced archive photographs. Elegant dark wooden cabinets have handles for visitors to pull and discover fascinating archive material displayed within. One wall of the gallery features an audiovisual presentation of archive photographs, paintings and images from sketchbooks to an evocative soundtrack of music, birdsong and readings from Mary’s diaries. This offers a lovely introduction to the Wattses and gives visitors an intimate connection to the two artists, all the more poignant when standing in the house in which they lived.
Authentic touches
George’s studio has been recreated from photographs and contemporary accounts, and contains several of his paintings, and his palette, brushes and paint stand, as well as facsimile copies of his letters, which visitors can pick up and read. Despite this, there is no real sense of his presence, which could have been achieved more successfully by including the wicker chair in which he sits in one photograph with a cushion at his feet, or releasing his signature velvet skullcap from the drawer in which it lies with no label or explanation of its significance.
The most impressive feature of the studio is the recreation of George’s original pulley system, including a slot in the floor, which he used to hoist his painting The Court of Death into position to enable him to work on the vast canvas without a ladder. Tate has loaned the painting for display in the studio, which adds authenticity and brings George’s working methods to life. Having said that, a visit to the studio of Frederic Leighton – George Watts’s great friend and London neighbour – in Holland Park’s Leighton House Museum gives a more authentic experience of a Victorian artist’s studio. But the friendly stewards in the studio and galleries at the Watts are keen to engage visitors and provide an extra layer of interpretation as well as a welcoming presence. The new galleries are beautifully presented, contain many fascinating, previously unseen, objects and add another component to the Artists’ Village.
Above all, the venue excels at bringing women artists to the fore, through temporary shows in the main gallery, adjacent to the Studios in Limnerslease, and now through this exemplary retelling of Mary’s forgotten story in the Artists’ Village. Mary’s belief in the ethos of the Home Arts and Industries Association – a strand of the arts and crafts movement – and the Victorian spirit of self- improvement is kept alive and well through the gallery’s learning programme, apprenticeships and engagement with the local community.
Caroline Ikin is a former collections manager at the National Trust. She now works for the Gardens Trust
We decided to eliminate all curatorial text from this space, minimise modern features and restore it to its original appearance. The result of this approach is, we hope, a compelling experience for visitors, who have the rare opportunity to simply stroll into what feels like the working studio of one of the great European symbolist masters.
The European character of a studio-museum (as we now are) inspired us to go searching for comparable museums abroad, which has resulted in the establishment of a European Studio Museum Network, for which we have made a website.
The Mary Watts Gallery has been created in the room Mary used as her studio and where she held classes teaching local people how to work in terracotta. But it was also a space for leisure and entertaining: this is where she hosted parties for local children, for example.
Mary worked in many media, so we have set up a range of displays around a long table, which suggests a workbench, on which there are touch panels explaining how Mary evolved the enormously elaborate decoration of her masterpiece, the Watts Chapel. At one end of the table sits an exquisite scale model of the chapel made for us in walnut and terracotta by Henry Milner.
Nick Tromans is the Brice curator at the Watts Gallery, near Compton in Surrey.
Visit the European Studio Museum Network at artiststudiomuseum.org
Main funders Heritage Lottery Fund; Clore Duffield Foundation; Foyle Foundation; J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust; Jonathan and Jane Clarke; The Deborah Loeb Brice Foundation; The Finnis Scott Foundation; The George John and Sheilah Livanos Charitable Trust; Guildford Borough Council. Special thanks to four lenders and donors who have made this project possible: George and Kirsty Anson; Matthew and Helen Bowcock; Peter Harrison Foundation; The de Laszlo Foundation
Patron The Prince of Wales
Arts patron Antony Gormley
Project director Nicholas Tromans
Project manager Focus
Architect and exhibition designer ZMMA
Structural engineer Adrian Cox Associates
Mechanical and electrical engineer Arup
Quantity surveyor William G Dick
Film-maker Hijack
Lighting consultant Sutton Vane Associates
Access consultant MaceMark
Exhibition furniture carpentry Simon Thomas Pirie
Admission £9.50
This reversal of fortune is thanks to the renewal and reinvigoration of the Watts Gallery, which has been rejuvenated by injections of funding and inspirational leadership over the past five years. The Artists’ Village comprises the Watts Gallery (in an adjacent building to the studios), Watts Chapel, cemetery and pottery buildings. Now, with the opening of the Watts Studios, visitors can gain an insight into the Watts’s personal and professional lives.
The studios form the eastern end of Limnerslease, the house built in 1891 for the Wattses, which was acquired by the Trustees of the Watts Gallery in 2011. Limnerslease began as a winter residence for George and Mary, but gradually became their permanent home, where they could escape the smog of London. With a grant of £2.4m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Watts Studios at Limnerslease have opened to the public.
George’s studio has been restored and represented, and two additional galleries have been created to tell the story of Mary’s artistic vision and to explain the couple’s contribution to the community of Compton village. Guided tours take visitors around part of the house and there are plans to restore and reunite the rest of the house with the studios.
A new entrance to the studios has been created in an extension to the house, which complements the arts and crafts elements of the original architecture. The learning spaces and conservation studio on the lower floor are functional and modern. The details and colour schemes have clearly been informed by the Wattses’ artistic palette, but cleverly don’t look Victorian in any way. The stairs to the upper floor offer views over the landscape in which George found inspiration and Mary crafted a garden – it would be unfair to judge the landscaping so early in the studio project and in the growing season, but getting this right will be crucial to the visitor experience.
Intimate introduction
The Mary Watts Gallery occupies the original drawing room of the house, which Mary also used as her studio and where she held classes in terracotta modelling for the people of Compton village. The room – stripped bare with stylish modern shutters and lighting – is the perfect setting for a series of gesso panels designed by Mary for the chapel of the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot. The panels, which occupy three walls of the gallery, have been recently conserved and the careful lighting brings out their colours and gilding superbly. Visitors can examine the altar panels up close, and the exhibition display complements the experience of seeing Mary’s other beautiful work – the interiors of nearby Watts Chapel – in situ.
On a central table is a display revealing Mary’s gesso technique with a video and six plaster blocks in various stages of production, which visitors can touch. This display is simple and effective, and, together with some of her designs, a sketchbook and her recipe book (for plaster not cakes), gives a good insight into her design process. Her hand- decorated photograph album is also on display, with a facsimile of the book alongside for visitors to look through and appreciate the wit and delicacy of her artwork.
It would have been interesting to have similar facsimile copies of her sketchbooks and recipe book, which were tantalisingly opened at one page, hinting at further riches hidden from view.
The smaller Compton Gallery is lacking in purpose, but there are some treasures in this small space, including one of Mary’s diaries, kept regularly and written in her tiny handwriting. George’s Order of Merit is also on display, as well as an original weathervane from the roof of the gallery.
The striking purple walls form a surprisingly fitting backdrop to six of George’s paintings and a selection of reproduced archive photographs. Elegant dark wooden cabinets have handles for visitors to pull and discover fascinating archive material displayed within. One wall of the gallery features an audiovisual presentation of archive photographs, paintings and images from sketchbooks to an evocative soundtrack of music, birdsong and readings from Mary’s diaries. This offers a lovely introduction to the Wattses and gives visitors an intimate connection to the two artists, all the more poignant when standing in the house in which they lived.
Authentic touches
George’s studio has been recreated from photographs and contemporary accounts, and contains several of his paintings, and his palette, brushes and paint stand, as well as facsimile copies of his letters, which visitors can pick up and read. Despite this, there is no real sense of his presence, which could have been achieved more successfully by including the wicker chair in which he sits in one photograph with a cushion at his feet, or releasing his signature velvet skullcap from the drawer in which it lies with no label or explanation of its significance.
The most impressive feature of the studio is the recreation of George’s original pulley system, including a slot in the floor, which he used to hoist his painting The Court of Death into position to enable him to work on the vast canvas without a ladder. Tate has loaned the painting for display in the studio, which adds authenticity and brings George’s working methods to life. Having said that, a visit to the studio of Frederic Leighton – George Watts’s great friend and London neighbour – in Holland Park’s Leighton House Museum gives a more authentic experience of a Victorian artist’s studio. But the friendly stewards in the studio and galleries at the Watts are keen to engage visitors and provide an extra layer of interpretation as well as a welcoming presence. The new galleries are beautifully presented, contain many fascinating, previously unseen, objects and add another component to the Artists’ Village.
Above all, the venue excels at bringing women artists to the fore, through temporary shows in the main gallery, adjacent to the Studios in Limnerslease, and now through this exemplary retelling of Mary’s forgotten story in the Artists’ Village. Mary’s belief in the ethos of the Home Arts and Industries Association – a strand of the arts and crafts movement – and the Victorian spirit of self- improvement is kept alive and well through the gallery’s learning programme, apprenticeships and engagement with the local community.
Caroline Ikin is a former collections manager at the National Trust. She now works for the Gardens Trust
Focus on: curation
Of the new display spaces we have created at the Watts Studios, the studio of George Frederic Watts was, conceptually, the easiest to curate – although the most complex logistically.We decided to eliminate all curatorial text from this space, minimise modern features and restore it to its original appearance. The result of this approach is, we hope, a compelling experience for visitors, who have the rare opportunity to simply stroll into what feels like the working studio of one of the great European symbolist masters.
The European character of a studio-museum (as we now are) inspired us to go searching for comparable museums abroad, which has resulted in the establishment of a European Studio Museum Network, for which we have made a website.
The Mary Watts Gallery has been created in the room Mary used as her studio and where she held classes teaching local people how to work in terracotta. But it was also a space for leisure and entertaining: this is where she hosted parties for local children, for example.
Mary worked in many media, so we have set up a range of displays around a long table, which suggests a workbench, on which there are touch panels explaining how Mary evolved the enormously elaborate decoration of her masterpiece, the Watts Chapel. At one end of the table sits an exquisite scale model of the chapel made for us in walnut and terracotta by Henry Milner.
Nick Tromans is the Brice curator at the Watts Gallery, near Compton in Surrey.
Visit the European Studio Museum Network at artiststudiomuseum.org
Project data
Cost, including contribution to endowment £5mMain funders Heritage Lottery Fund; Clore Duffield Foundation; Foyle Foundation; J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust; Jonathan and Jane Clarke; The Deborah Loeb Brice Foundation; The Finnis Scott Foundation; The George John and Sheilah Livanos Charitable Trust; Guildford Borough Council. Special thanks to four lenders and donors who have made this project possible: George and Kirsty Anson; Matthew and Helen Bowcock; Peter Harrison Foundation; The de Laszlo Foundation
Patron The Prince of Wales
Arts patron Antony Gormley
Project director Nicholas Tromans
Project manager Focus
Architect and exhibition designer ZMMA
Structural engineer Adrian Cox Associates
Mechanical and electrical engineer Arup
Quantity surveyor William G Dick
Film-maker Hijack
Lighting consultant Sutton Vane Associates
Access consultant MaceMark
Exhibition furniture carpentry Simon Thomas Pirie
Admission £9.50