Walter Crane, by George Frederic Watts RA (1817-1904) (original) (raw)

Walter Crane, by George Frederic Watts RA (1817-1904). Oil on canvas. 1891. 26 1/8 in. x 22 in. (663 mm x 560 mm). Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, given by the wish of George Frederic Watts, 1915. Primary Collection, NPG 1750; but on display at the Watts Gallery, Compton. Kindly released by the gallery under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported) licence.

In the autumn of 1891, Crane was preparing to set off to America when he received an invitation to sit for a portrait. The result, as shown on the left, was a great success, and Crane himself was unstinting in his praise for his fellow artist:

Before leaving London Mr. G.F. Watts had done me the honour to ask me to sit to him for a portrait. This was painted in the studio at Little Holland House in about six sittings, with an interval of about a fortnight between the fourth and two final sittings, I think. This picture would be remarkable if only for the fact that it was received, when exhibited at the New Gallery the following summer, with unanimous approval. It is commonly held, indeed, to be one of the finest works of the great master. One cannot but feel that one was fortunate in happening to have been the subject, since there can be no doubt either of the quality of the work or of the artist who produced it. [10]

Writing in 1897, Henry James was one of those who concurred, and his observations on the portrait help to explain what seems like undue self-effacement on Crane's part (was not the subject himself to feel some pride in his contribution to the portrait?). Having seen the work at the New Gallery, and having noted tactfully that Watts's later work was not generally his "strongest," James continues,

yet it was in 1891 that he produced his admirable portrait of Walter Crane, an expression of both his gifts at their best and a supreme example of his happy art of making, with a hundred refinements, a mystery even of what he most seizes. This picture, a real triumph of the sense within the sense and the craft within the craft, marks the author’s greatest day. Such a portrait — such a taking possession for taste and thought — has even a certain fine cruelty for the sitter. It seems to do so much for him that it is a kind of effacement of what he may have done or may wish to do for himself. To be taken so seriously and set to such music is, in short, possibly discouraging. [245]

However, if Watts is to be congratulated on the work, there is still much to be said for the fellow-artist who inspired it, whose keen sensibility and sense of style are not only captured here but illuminated. Crane looks up and forward, intent, absorbed in his own vision, the flourish at his white collar telling of an element of playfulness. Here was an artist who awakened in his fellow-practitioner a profound appreciation of their shared calling.

Bibliography

Crane, Walter. "The Work of Walter Crane." The Easter Art Journal. London: J.S. Virtue & Co., 1898. Google Books. Free ebook.

"George Frederic Watts." National Portrait Gallery. Web. 13 November 2025.

James, Henry. The Painter's Eye: Notes and Essays on the Pictorial Arts. Ed. John L. Sweeney. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.

Created 13 November 2025