Study of Prometheus Unbound

George Frederick Watts (1817−1904)

Oil on canvas

363 x 317 mm (14 5/16 x 12 1/2 inches)

Provenance: from the artist's wife Mary to Michael and Lilian Chapman, and thence by descent. Three pictures were bought together as Lot 203, Sotheby's, 13th October 2004.

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Commentary by Paul Crowther

In August 1844, Watts visited Rome for the first time, and saw the Sistine Chapel, amongst other important works. He was inspired to consider creating monumental frescoes. His oil painting was also deeply influenced by Michelangelo’s fresco work, and in such works as The Court of Death (Tate Gallery, begun in 1853) and other pictures from the late 1840s and 1850s, Watts is clearly trying to assimilate features of Michelangelo’s style, and especially his contrapposto. In the present work, the supporting figures and that of Prometheus himself (especially his uplifted and foreshortened right arm) appear to be imaginative variations on those Sistine ignudi by Michelangelo surrounding The Sacrifice of Noah, and the Temptation of Eve/Expulsion from Paradise, whilst the aerial figure seems to be inspired by God Creating the Sun and the Planets.

Bibliography

Crowther, Paul. Awakening Beauty: The Crowther-Oblak Collection of Victorian Art. Exhibition catalogue. Ljubljana: National Gallery of Slovenia; Galway: Moore Institute, National University of Ireland, 2014. No. 147.

Created 12 January 2015