Head of a woman, probably for 'Eve', 1860s-90s

George Frederic Watts RA (1817 - 1904)

RA Collection: Art

This chalk study of a woman's head probably relates to Watts's depictions of Eve. The strong neck and tilt of the head is close to the post of Eve in 'She Shall Be Called Woman' (versions at the Watts Gallery and Tate Britain) which shows the first woman immediately after her creation rising up through clouds of smoke.

Quoting Milton, Watts wrote that he intended the face of Eve to be 'dark with excessive bright' and that he painted her features indistinctly to suggest that 'intuitions may take the human mind into a region where reason stops'. However, a photograph from the Watts Gallery shows a version of the painting (or an early stage of the painting), in which Eve's features are more distinct and closer to the face portrayed in this drawing.

Watts worked on various versions of the Eve theme from the 1860s to the 1890s and a finished trilogy, showing the creation, temptation and repentance of Eve, is at Tate Britain.

Further reading:

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/watts-she-shall-be-called-woman-n01642

Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone eds., The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones & Watts - Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910, exhib. cat., London, 2000, cat no. 124, pp. 256-267