Drawings of male figures, including a study for 'Orpheus and Eurydice'

George Frederic Watts RA (1817 - 1904)

RA Collection: Art

This sheet of drawings of male arms and torsos, includes one drawing for the figure of Orpheus in 'Orpheus and Eurydice' (1860s-70s, versions at the Watts Gallery, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard, Aberdeen Art Gallery and elsewhere) at the top left corner. It is probably a study for Watts's first version of the painting, showing two half-length figures in a horizontal format which was exhibited in 1869. It is unlikely to relate to Watts's vertical compositions of this subject in which Orpheus's arms is much lower down and placed around Eurydice's waist.

Watts's use of red chalk in this study of muscular male figures is reminiscent of sixteenth-century drawing. The repetition of forms on sheets of studies like this one, is in keeping with the artist's statements that he used life drawing as a 'grammar of art'. Emulating the Old Masters, he made studies from nature to develop a knowledge of the human figure which then enabled him to paint from memory rather than from life.