Lot 114: George Spencer Watson, R.A., R.W.S., R.O.I. (1869-1934)

George Spencer Watson, R.A., R.W.S., R.O.I. (1869-1934)
Hilda Spencer Watson, seated three-quarter-length, in a red coat and fur muff
signed, inscribed and indistinctly dated 'Hilda Mary/Spencer Watson/painted by her husband George 19..' (lower right)
oil on canvas, unframed
42 x 36 in. (106.7 x 91.5 cm.)

London, The New Gallery, Summer Exhibition, 1902.

Watson's deep 'visual learning' is evident in the stylistic sources of the present portrait - one of his earliest paintings of Miss Hilda Mary Gardiner, the young woman he was destined to marry in 1909. Although Watson painted her mother, Mrs Harold Gardiner (RA 1906, no.299) and her sister, Lilian, Hilda, by 1902, had become his muse and the present canvas was subsequently inscribed with her married name.

Known affectionately as 'Ginger', she was a classical violinist who had trained in Europe. As a dancer and mime artist Hilda was heavily influenced by the free form 'Greek' style of Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan, which developed a theoretical basis in the so-called 'eurythmics' of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. The first eurythmics school was opened in London in 1913.

Like Ottoline Morrell, Hilda was tall and willowy, and her forceful, independent character shines through in all her portraits. In addition to the present work, seated portraits were shown at the Royal Academy in 1909 (sold Christie's, South Kensington, 26 October 1995), in 1911-12 and she features prominently in Four Loves I Found exhibited in 1922. (sold Christie's, London, 16 December 2009, lot 23). The 1911 painting, My Lady of the Rose, is, to some extent a re-visiting of the present canvas, with the inclusion of Watson's interests in allegory, represented by the medieval tapestry in the background.

Watson's fascination for the stylisations of an earlier age at first recalls the mannerisms of the great French mid-century classicist, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. The splendidly realized white fur muff for instance, echoes the ermine trim of Mlle Rivire's shawl in Ingres' famous portrait (Museé du Louvre), while her facial structure and coiffure are reminiscent of later models such as the celebrated Baronne Betty de Rothschild, 1848 (private collection) and the Princesse de Broglie, 1853 (private collection). However, the early Florentine masters supplied Ingres' underpinning, and these were being excavated in Watson's day by Berenson and written up in monographs by unsung Edwardian women writers such as Julia Cartwright and Maud Cruttwell. The arguments over attribution concern us less than the visual impact of works coming into the art market - works of the type of Jacopo Pontormo's Halberdier, 1530 (Getty Museum, Santa Monica). In such paintings there was evident delight in the deployment of bold colours. Paint was emblazoned on to the canvas or panel, in the manner of an heraldic limner and faces, as in Watson's earliest treatments of Hilda, were viewed from the front and for the most part, evenly lit.

KMc.