Portraits of G.F. Watts

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George Frederic Watts
by Henry Herschel Hay Cameron (later The Cameron Studio)
1885
NPG x20030

As well as being one of the greatest portrait painters of the period, G. F. Watts’s own striking appearance attracted the attention of some of the leading portraitists among his contemporaries.  This is especially so of those working in portrait photography, a medium that was itself born during his lifetime.  The selection displayed here ranges from an early photograph by a little known figure, James Soame, to works by two distinguished later photographers, Henry Herschel Hay Cameron and Ralph W. Robinson, and a fine study of Watts late in life taken by the great American photographer, Edward Steichen.  

The display also includes an unusual cast medallion by the French artist, Alphonse Legros, whom Watts befriended after he came to London in 1863.

Watts is one of 145 artists included in the Gallery’s recently launched Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue

© National Portrait Gallery, London