WATTERSON 



0225 



WATTS 



was born at Valenciennes, of poor parents, and 

 had to struggle not only against poverty but 

 ill health, to get a start in life. Hungry and 

 lonely, he drifted to Paris, where, his talent 

 once recognized, he soon became prosperous; 

 in fact, he was so popular that the people 

 walked, dressed and danced d la Wattcau. In 

 1717 he was received at the Academy and was 

 enrolled as Court painter of pleasure parties, 

 mu-squerades, etc. He was a favorite of Fred- 

 erick the Great of Prussia, who possessed a 

 large collection of his works. His paintings, 

 executed in delicate tints, are noted for their 

 elegance and grace. His most famous work is 

 The Embarkation for the Island of Cythcra, in 

 the Louvre. 



WATTERSON, HENRY (1840- ), the best- 

 known Southern newspaper editor, was born at 

 Washington, D. C. He was privately educated, 

 and at the age of twenty years began news- 

 paper work as an editorial writer for the Wash- 

 ington Star. He 

 joined the Con- 

 federate army at 

 the outbreak of 

 the War of Se- 

 cession, but was 

 discharged in 1862 

 that he might 

 edit a Confeder- 

 ate journal, the 

 Rebel, published 

 a t Chattanooga, 

 Tenn. In 1864 he 

 returned to the HI:XRY WATTERSON 



army and became chief of scouts under General 

 Johnston. He went to Nashville, Tenn., after 

 the war and revived an old paper, the Repub- 

 lican Banner. He left this successful work in 

 1867 to become editor of the Louisville Journal, 

 which he soon consolidated with the Co/- 

 under his editorial direction the Courier-Jour- 

 nal became one of the most influential papers 

 in America. He retired in 1918. 



As a lecturer and political speaker he is 

 noted for his picturesque phrasing and vigorous 

 and accurate statements. His ability as editor 

 and speaker made him a pow.r in national poli- 

 tics as early as 1872, and from that year until 

 1892 he was a dclcgatc-at-lorge to every Demo- 

 cratic national convention. From 1876 to 1878 

 he was a member of Congress, but after scrv- 

 one term refused every offer of politir.il 

 honors. Few men in the Southern states were 

 more conspicuous in advocating a thorough 

 reconciliation of the North and the South. 

 390 



While author of numerous essays and sketches, 

 his only works in book form are Oddities of 

 Southern Life and Character, History of the 

 Spanish-American War, Abraham Lincoln and 

 The Compromises of Life. 



WATTS, GEORGE FREDERICK (1817-1904). the 

 "poet-painter" of England, who did more than 

 any other artist of the century to raise portrait 

 painting to a high plane of excellence. He 

 was also a great moral painter and prophet. 

 He saw in all things the image of divinity, and 

 with this spirit he painted his symbolical 

 studies, Watchman, What of the Nigktf, Life's 

 Illusions, Love and Death, Hope, etc. Death 

 in his paintings does not appear in the guise of 

 a skull, but as a majestic figure clad in white, 

 with face averted as if deploring her errand; 

 for Watt sought to dispel the notion that death 

 was the greatest of all terrors. His historical 

 paintings, landscapes and numerous sculpt ural 

 pieces were conceived on the same lofty plane 

 as were his symbolical studies. 



He was born in London. When a young man 

 he married Ellen Terry, the English actress, 

 then only seventeen years of age. This mar- 

 riage proved unhappy, and it was soon an- 

 nulled. Miss Terry was the model for Sir 

 Galahad, which Watts presented to Eton Col- 

 lege (see page 2360). This picture now hangs 

 in the college chapel. 



As Watts was a man of wealth, ho 

 cuted his famous pictorial moralities for money ; 

 these he presented to various cities. To 

 America he sent a replica of Love and 1 

 now in the White House, Washington; to th. 

 city of Manchester, England, he gave his Love 

 and Death, and to Munich, Bavaria, The 

 Happy Warrior. He executed gratuitously a 

 o of Saint George, now in the House of 

 Parliament, and he decorated the dining hall 

 of Lincoln's Inn. He gave over 150 port 

 including those of Carl vie, Tennyson, Matt 

 Arnold, Browning, Millais and Sir Frederick 

 hton, to England for the National Portrait 

 Gallery in London. 



Tennyson once asked Watts to describe his 

 notion of what a true portraitist should be, nn<l 

 the painter's reply so pleased the poet that he 

 embodied it in his Idyll* of the King: 



Aa when a pn'n* '". poring on a fac 

 Dlvlnrly. through all I finds the man 



D.I It, and w> paints him .ice, 



hope and color of a mind and life, 

 Lives for hla children, over at Its best 



Consult ChoPtorton'a O. F. Watt*; Harrington's 

 G. F. Watt a: Reminiscence*. 



