GIOVANNI COSTA 



my friends in Rome that Mr. Watts really thought a 

 picture of mine worthy to hang in the National 

 Gallery ? " And when Mr. Watts himself confirmed 

 the statement he replied, " Then I shall die happy." 

 The master's last days, we rejoice to think, were 

 spent in peace and happiness. In his old studio of 

 the Via Margutta, or in the more spacious rooms of 

 the Palazzo Odescalchi, he lived, surrounded by his 

 own sketches and the memorials of his artist friends, 

 the portraits of his two daughters painted by Leighton 

 and Alma-Tadema, and pictures or studies by Corot 

 and Decamps, by Arnold Bocklin and Lenbach. But 

 the fatigue and hardships which he had undergone 

 during his different campaigns, and the cold nights 

 which he had spent on the Campagna, had told upon 

 his vigorous frame. He suffered from repeated attacks 

 of arthritis and partly lost the use of one arm. 



" Since my last illness," he wrote with his stiffening 

 hand, " I paint for fewer hours at a time, but with 

 greater intensity and deeper earnestness than before. 

 Each movement gives me pain, but I realise the joy 

 of overcoming this for love of my art. So I have at 

 length found that great God who lives at the heart 

 of things, and I seek with all my might to set forth 

 that divine idea which lies at the root of art. And, 

 burdened as I am with the weight of years, I take 

 courage when I think of the many good friends and 

 great painters whom I have known and loved, and my 



291 T2 



