GEORGE FREDERIC WATTS, O.M., R.A.
1817-1904

IMPORTANT ART FROM THE JOHN SCHAEFFER AO COLLECTION

GEORGE FREDERIC WATTS, O.M., R.A.

1817-1904
The Spirit of Christianity: A Symbolic Design 1873-1875

oil on canvas
signed and dated 'G F Watts / 1875.' lower left
68.5 x 38 cm
frame: original, Frost & Reed, London (label verso)

Provenance

Mr George Frederic Watts, London
Mr Charles H. Rickards, Manchester, commissioned from the above in 1873, until
Christie's, London, 2 April 1887, lot 39, £126
Dr Thomas Bond, acquired from the above
Private Collection, by descent from the above
Dreweatt Neate, Newbury, 11 February 1998, lot 210, illustrated
Mr John Schaeffer AO, Sydney, acquired from the above

Exhibited

Pre-Raphaelite and Olympians: Selected Works of Victorian Art from the John and Julie Schaeffer and the Art Gallery of New South Wales Collections, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 April – 9 September 2001
Masterworks of Victorian Art from the Collection of John H. Schaeffer, Brigham Young University Museum of Art, Provo, Utah, 15 February – 16 August 2008
The John H. Schaeffer Collection of Victorian and European Art, Springville Museum of Art, Springville, Utah, 26 August 2009 – 28 February 2010
Victorian Visions: Nineteenth Century Art from the John Schaeffer Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 May – 29 August 2010, no. 13, illustrated

Literature

Correspondence with C.H. Richards, National Portrait Gallery, London, 1873-1875
Mary S. Watts, Manuscript Catalogue of the Works of G F Watts, [no date], vol. 2, p. 136
The Times, London, 4 April 1887, p. 4
Veronica Franklin Gould, G.F. Watts: The Last Great Victorian, Yale University Press, Newhaven/London, 2004, p. 302, note 60, plate 23
Mark Bills and Barbara Bryant, G.F. Watts Victorian Visionary: Highlights from the Watts Gallery Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2008, pp. 53, 212
Richard Beresford, Victorian Visions: Nineteenth Century Art from the John Schaeffer Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, pp. 64, 65 (illustrated)