Compositional study for a fresco of 'Achilles and Briseis', by ca. 1858

George Frederic Watts RA (1817 - 1904)

RA Collection: Art

A compositional study in pencil and red chalk for the fresco of 'Achilles and Brisëis' painted at Bowood House, Wiltshire (1858, now Watts Gallery) for Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne. This depicts the scene from Book I of Homer's Iliad in which Achilles is forced to relinquish his captive, Brisëis, to Agamemnon. His mother, Thetis, looks on. Watts planned a second fresco at Bowood on the subject of 'Coriolanus' (1860, see RA 04/195) but this was eventually carried out in oil on canvas instead.

Like several drawings for Watts's murals and frescoes in the RA collection, this is a small drawing in a frieze-like format. According to Mary Seton Watts, the artist's wife, Watts preferred not to use a cartoon but instead often worked from small scale compositional drawings and detailed studies. However, there is an unfinished cartoon for 'Achilles and Brisëis' and fragments of a cartoon for 'Coriolanus' at the Watts Gallery, suggesting that Watts's practice varied.

There are further studies for 'Achilles and Briseis', in oil and watercolour, at the Watts Gallery. The pose of Achilles was later reused by Watts for 'The Genius of Greek Poetry' (1878, Fogg Art Museum).

Further reading:

Mary Seton Watts, George Frederic Watts - The Annals of an Artist's Life, London 1912, Vol I, pp. 174 and 195, and 150-1

George Frederic Watts 1817-1904, exhib. cat, The Arts Council, London, 1954 and 1955 (there are two catalogues - one for the Tate Gallery exhibition and another for the travelling exhibition), cat. no. 44 (1955 edition), and 126 (1954 Tate edition).