Watchman, What of the Night?:
Etching by Paul Adolpe Rajon After a Painting by George Frederick Watts
by
Theresa Franks, for Fine Art Registry®
The nineteenth century anonymous article, quoted below, profiling artist George Frederick Watts is several stories in one, including a not so obvious message for today's living artists. There is the obvious reference to Watts himself. There is the story of the world renowned etcher, Paul Rajon, and that of the famous 19th century actress, and muse, Ellen Terry, who was a beguiling woman that seemed to have cast spells on a number of the famous and perhaps not so famous men of the period. Also weaved into this story is the artist, Mary Fraser-Tytler, who had great influence in her own right. The following article will touch briefly on all four artistic lives, while focusing on the rarely seen work, Watchman, What of the Night? - a truly fascinating glimpse into Victorian social circles and artists of the day.
Steel engraving of "Watchman, What of the Night?" after the etching by Paul Adolphe Rajon after the Watts painting.
Print and Image Collection Fine Art Registry®. ©2010 Global Fine Art Registry, LLC.
Where exactly is the painting, Watchman, What of the Night?, today? Our research indicates that it has not come up for auction in recent years and there is no indication we could immediately find that provides a clue as to whether the painting is maintained in a private or an institutional collection. Also, we could not locate any digital images of this painting online. According to the anonymous 1883 article below, the painting was first exhibited at Grosvenor Gallery in London in 1880. Where it went from there, we are unable to tell without further research. We expect it might be in the collection at the Tate in London or perhaps at the National Portrait Gallery where Watts gifted 150 of his portraits in 1894. We know that the Metropolitan Museum has in its collection, Watts' Ariadne in Naxos. It is important to note that Watts was also an accomplished sculptor for at the same exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1880, one of Watts' sculptures was exhibited. However, as the identity of sculpture is not referenced, we do not know which sculpture was exhibited, but we have included an image of an example of his sculpture work below.
George Watts - Wikipedia
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Sculpture "Head of Medusa," by George Watts
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March 1883
Mr. George Frederick Watts, the painter of Watchman, What of the Night? was born in London in 1820. In 1840 he brought himself into notice by his cartoon, "Caractacus Led in Triumph Through the Streets of Rome," to which was awarded a first-class prize. Subsequently he received another for his painting, "Alfred Inciting the Saxons to Prevent the Landing of the Danes." He has produced an immense number of pictures, among which are "Daphne," "By the Sea," "The Return of the Dove," "The Prodigal," and "Ariadne." Many of his pictures are of an allegorical nature. He is a portrait painter of great merit, and also a sculptor of mark. Among his best portraits are those of Alfred Tennyson, Dean Stanley, John Stuart Mill, the Duke of Argyll, and Robert Browning. His pictures are exceedingly popular, and it has been said of him that "he equally possesses as witchery of pencil and a glory of pigment."
The beautiful etching from which our engraving is made is by the celebrated etcher, Rajon. Paul Adolphe Rajon was born at Dijon, and studied under Léopold Flameng and Léon Gaucherel. He is complete master of the art of etching, and uses fine and coarse lines with equal power. The quality of the material is admirably indicated by the lines, whether of marble, metal, or tissues, and his work is done with great care. He is a painter as well as an etcher, but of late years pursues the latter art only.
Paul Rajon actually started his career as a photographer while studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils. Although Rajon debuted at the Salon in 1865 with a drawing, he ultimately devoted himself to etching for the remainder of his career. When he exhibited, he did so only with his etchings, though his paintings and drawings were of excellent workmanship. Rajon's etchings, which were mainly reproductions of paintings by contemporary artists of the day, like George Watts, and also by Old Masters such as Gainsborough, Rembrandt and Rubens. His work was also published in the famous art journals of the day, including L'Art and Gazette des beaux-arts and his etchings were also published by Galeries Goupil.
Rajon also produced original portrait etchings of contemporary writers including Turgenev, Tennyson, and Théophile Gautier. In 1873 Rajon received a commission through Bracquemond to go to England where he spent half the year making portrait etchings of famous personalities like Darwin, after Walter William Ouless (1848-1933), and Mrs. Rose, after Frederick Sandys. He made a very good living from his art, becoming very successful in France and England. His etchings were highly acclaimed and well received. He was so successful in fact, that his etchings and his fame made it all the way to America where he became acquainted with the New York print dealer Frederick Keppel. Rajon was awarded medals for graphic art at the Salons of 1869, 1870, 1873 and at the Exposition Universelle of 1878.
Just as Fine Art Registry could not locate an image of the painting Watchman, What of the Night? online or elsewhere, we could not locate any information regarding Paul Rajon's etching of this work after Watts either. Accordingly, the image is quite rare.
Paul Adolphe Rajon died on June 8, 1888.
The painting, Watchman, What of the Night? was first exhibited at Grosvenor Gallery in London, in 1880. It is a half figure of a woman in armor, and a glow of light pervades the picture. It will be remembered that in Isaiah, 21:11, occurs this passage: "The burden of Dúmah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?" Why the painting was so called is not apparent - whether the name is simply a fancy on the part of the painter, or whether it is meant to be allegorical - as there appears to be no connection between this woman in armor and the words of Isaiah.
Despite what is stated above, it is interesting to note that the study of the passage, Isaiah 21:11, and especially the reference to Dúmah could very well have application to the Watts painting. The name Dúmah is symbolical, and without any topographical application. Dúmah (a word play on Edom) is deep, utter silence, and therefore the land of the dead. To put the verse into context, the Biblical Edomites were looking for deliverance from the night of the Babylonian threat that was upon them. The duplication of the expression "Watchman, what of the night?" may represent the intensity at which the Edomites felt the pressing of the night. And so they cry out to the prophet, Isaiah, "Watchman, what of the night?" The reply comes in the following verse, 12: "The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come." Both morning and night are coming. For whom comes the morning and for whom comes the night? Again, putting the verse in context, the morning was coming for Israel and the night for Edom. Spiritually, the morning came for those who inquire and repent, the night for those who do not. Since the painting was once named, Joan de Arc, before it was changed to Watchman, What of the Night?, the Biblical analysis above seems reasonably appropriate.
The sweet, womanly face contrasts most strikingly with the inflexibility of the heavy armor. The golden hair floats in beauty over the masculine dress, and the face wears a look of eager, anxious questioning. Is it the night of battle she questions the watchman of? For that to woman is ever a question fraught with anxiety and dread, even when she buckles on the armor and goes to the fight herself, to do or to die in the gory conflict.
The female model for the painting, "Watchman, What of the night?" was the 19th century theatrical artist, English actress, Alice Ellen Terry, who George Watts married when she was only 17 years old. Watts was 47 years old at the time of his marriage to Ellen Terry. The 30 year age difference between the two caused terrible strife in their marriage. Watts first titled the piece Joan of Arc, but later changed the painting's title to "Watchman of the Night". Watts loved to paint allegorical and biblical images and he was a master at painting armour which was prominent in a number of his works, including his self-portraits and the painting titled, Sir Galahad which is illustrated below.
Sir Galahad - 1862
There is little doubt why Watts was drawn to Ellen Terry as she was the model for a number of his paintings. Her biographer once said: "Tall, slender, with beautiful flaxen hair, grey eyes, full red lips, finely framed features, graceful of carriage and movement, fresh and always young, Ellen Terry was as much an art object as an actress." George Watts and Ellen Terry divorced on November 21, 1877. Ellen Terry died of a cerebral hemorrhage and died on July 21, 1928 at the age of 81.
Ellen Terry at age 16 - Wikipedia
Painting of Ellen Terry titled, "Choosing" by George Watts - Wikipedia
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Ellen Terry in 1880 - Age 33 - Wikipedia
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Watts remarried in 1886 at the age of 69. His new wife, Mary Fraser-Tytler, was only 36 years old at the time; more than 32 years his junior. She was of Scottish descent, growing up in a castle on the shores of Loch Ness, and was an artist in her own right. Mary was a portrait painter, but after her marriage to Watts, she worked in pottery, metalwork and textiles. She was a great fan of her husband's work and wrote his three-volume biography. Unlike Watts' marriage to Ellen Terry, this marriage was different - it stood the test of time. Mary Fraser-Tytler Watts died in 1938 at the age of 89.
Portrait of Mary Seton Fraser-Tytler Watts, by George Watts - Wikipedia
The painting, Watchmen, What of the Night?, was much admired at the time of its first exhibition, and we are glad to have it in our power to reproduce it for our readers. The painting of the armor is faultless, the expression of the face wonderfully given, and the entire picture most charmingly effective.
In the book, "Watts (1817-1904)", by William Loftus Hare, he writes:
"In July of 1904 the eighty-seven mortal years of George Frederick Watts came to an end. He had outlived all the contemporaries and acquaintances of his youth; few, even among the now living, knew him in his middle age; while to those of the present generation, who knew little of the man though much of his work, he appeared as members of the Ionides family, thus inaugurating the series of private and public portraits for which he became so famous.
The Watts of our day, however, the teacher first and the painter afterwards, had not yet come on the scene. His first aspiration towards monumental painting began in the year 1843, when in a competition for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament he
gained a prize of £300 for his cartoon of "Caractacus led Captive through the Streets of Rome." At this time, when history was claiming pictorial art as her servant and expositor, young Watts carried off the prize against the whole of his competitors. This company included the well-known historical painter Haydon, who, from a sense of the impossibility of battling against his financial difficulties, and from the neglect, real or fancied, of the leading politicians, destroyed himself by his own hand.
Self-portrait of George Watts
George Watts was conscious of the benefit he had received from the great men who had preceded him, and in his best moments so essentially humble, that in his last will and testament, and the letters of gift, he rises to the great height of artistic patriotism which always appeared to him in the light of a supreme duty.
The former document has the following phrases: 'I bequeath all my studies and works to any provincial gallery or galleries in Great Britain or Ireland, which my executors shall in their discretion select, and to be distributed between such galleries.' This Will is dated
November 1, 1899, and relates to such works as had not already been disposed of. His great gift to the nation was made in 1897, accompanied by a characteristic letter in which he says:
Self-portrait of George Watts in Painter's Smock
'You can have the pictures any time after next Sunday. I have never regarded them as mine, but never expected they would be placed anywhere until after my death, and only see now my presumption and their defects and shrink from the consequences of my temerity! I should certainly like to have them placed together, but of course can make no conditions. One or two are away, and I am a little uncertain about the sending of some
others; if you could spare a moment I should like to consult you.'
A few weeks later, following a letter from the Keeper of the National Gallery, he writes as follows:
'I beg to thank you and through you the Trustees and Director of the National Gallery for the flattering intention of placing the tablet you speak of, but while returning grateful thanks for the intention of doing me this honour I should like it to be felt that I have in no way desired anything but the recognition that my object in work, and the offering of it,
has only been the hope of spending my time and exercising my experience in a worthy manner, leaving to time further judgment. Most certainly I desire that my pictures should be seen to advantage, and have a good effect as an encouragement to artists of stronger fibre and greater vitality, to pursue if only occasionally a similar direction and object.'
At the end of a long life by no means devoid of mistakes and disappointments, it would seem as though Watts attained to his desires. George Watts passed away, while the witness of his aspirations remains."
George Watts stated that he left his artwork to time's "further judgment." And "time" did in fact smile on the nearly forgotten Victorian artist. We wonder what George Watts would say if he were alive today, knowing the role that his painting Hope played in "pointing Barack Obama down the path toward the White House."(1)
"Hope" by George Watts
I want to make people think. My intention has not been so much to paint pictures that will charm the eye as to suggest great thoughts that will appeal to the imagination and the heart, and kindle all that is best and noblest in humanity.
-- George Frederick Watts
This article is a wonderful, hopeful message to artists everywhere that you just never know how your work will be recognized in the future or by whom.
George Frederick Watts passed away on July 1, 1904.
--Edited by Theresa Franks for Fine Art Registry
1. For more on Obama's appreciation of Watts work, see the December 27, 2008, article Victorian painting by G.F. Watts inspired Obama to harp on 'Hope', written by Ellen Tumposky, London-Daily News.
— by Theresa Franks
| December 31, 2010
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