Studies for 'Lady Godiva', ca. 1890 ?

George Frederic Watts RA (1817 - 1904)

RA Collection: Art

On this sheet are three chalk figure studies for Watts's painting 'Lady Godiva: the return from the ride' (1879-90, Watts Gallery). Lady Godiva was said to have ridden naked through the streets of medieval Coventry in order to prevent her husband from raising high taxes from the town's population. The story was often something of a pretext for painting the female nude. Although Watts defended depictions of the nude in art, in this composition he deliberately rejected the traditional image of Godiva by choosing to paint the moment when she dismounts and is wrapped in a robe by her attendants.

This departure from the norm emphasised the nature of Godiva's sacrifice and also drew attention to Watts's unconventional attitude to the nude. In the 1880s he wrote, 'my aim is now...not so much to paint pictures which are delightful to the eye, but pictures which will go to the intelligence and to the imagination, and kindle there what is good and noble, and which will appeal to the heart. And in doing this I am forced to paint the nude' (Pall Mall Gazette, 1886, p.15).

Two of the drawings on this sheet are for the the head, upper torso and arms of the swooning Lady Godiva, but the drawing on the left is a study for the head of the figure on the right who is shown from the back, leading Godiva's horse away.