Study of a Woman [Jeannie Senior] by George Frederic Watts RA (1817-1904)

Study of a Woman [Jeannie Senior]

George Frederic Watts RA (1817-1904)

Pencil

11 3/4 x 9 1/4 inches

"This delicate drawing is of Jeanie Senior, who gathered up his drawings (including in all probability this very one) and pasted them into large albums — he adored her, and she him. Her pose is very close to the famous oil portrait of her 1857-8, Wightwick Manor — it has been described as 'One of Watts's acknowledged masterpieces'), where he substituted the portfolio in the drawing for a pot of rooted flowers that she waters (at her feet lie discarded flowers); Watts wrote that to her that he 'intended the flowers to supply the better known sentiments aspirations and affections, which it is sometimes difficult to keep alive, or at least blooming in the crush of artificial society'. Perhaps her rescuing his drawings suggested the analogy to Watts." — Rupert Maas with the assistance of Veronica Franklin Gould

References

Bryant, Barbara. G F Watts. Portraits: Fame and Beauty in Victorian Society. London: National Portrait Gallery, 2004, illus. plate 38.

Maas, Rupert. British Pictures. London: The Maas Gallery. 2006. Catalogue number 23.

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Last modified 13 August 2006