George Frederic Watts RA, Study for 'Chaos'

Study for 'Chaos', 1860s?

George Frederic Watts RA (1817 - 1904)

RA Collection: Art

A pencil study for 'Chaos' (several versions including c. 1847-73 Watts Gallery, 1875-82 Tate Britain). This study concentrates on three large reclining Titans drawn in heavy pencil with a textured, grainy effect almost resembling a mezzotint engraving.

A handlist of the Watts drawings in the RA Collection describes this as a study for 'The Titans of the Mountains'. Watts originally referred to the earlier versions of 'Chaos' as 'The Titans' or 'The Everlasting Hills' and some of these compositions depict only the large reclining figures of the Titans themselves. Watts wrote that these 'gigantic figures stretched out at length' should represent 'a range of mountains & typify the bony structure of a skeleton' (see Franklin Gould).

The 'Chaos' theme emerged from Watts's ambitious plans to create a hall of frescoes known as the 'House of Life', illustrating the creation and history of mankind and the cosmos. In the later 'Chaos' paintings, the composition was expanded to include 'the upheaving and disturbance previous to the regular course of things establishing itself in our planet' on the left, and 'a vaporous uncertainty of atmosphere' in the centre. In this arrangement the Titans represented 'an established state of things' and were indicative of 'Silence and Mighty Repose'. Below, a chain of floating figures personified the 'current of time...a continuous stream' (see Staley and Wilton/Upstone).

Further reading:

Allen Staley et al, Victorian High Renaissance , exh. cat., Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1978, cat. no. 23, p. 80-1

Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone eds., The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Watts: Symbolism in British Art 1860-1910, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London, 1997, cat. no. 49, p. 164-5

Veronica Franklin Gould ed., The Vision of G F Watts, The Watts Gallery, 2004, cat. no. 11 and 12, p. 49-50

Object details

Title
Study for 'Chaos'
Artist/designer
Date
1860s?
Object type
Drawing
Medium
Pencil on buff card
Dimensions

225 mm x 382 mm

Collection
Royal Academy of Arts
Object number
04/573
Acquisition
Bequeathed by George Frederic Watts RA 1904
return to start
back

Start exploring the RA Collection

read more
  • Explore art works, paint-smeared palettes, scribbled letters and more...
  • Artists and architects have run the RA for 250 years.
    Our Collection is a record of them.
Start exploring