Watts Gallery
Encyclopedia
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
in the village of Compton, near Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. It is dedicated to the work of Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts
George Frederic Watts
George Frederic Watts, OM was a popular English Victorian painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as Hope and Love and Life...
.
Watts moved to "Limnerslease" in Compton in 1891, and with his artist wife Mary Fraser-Tytler, planned a museum devoted to his work, which opened in April 1904, just before his death.
The architect of the Gallery was Christopher Hatton Turnor, an admirer of Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
and C.F.A. Voysey. Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
, the building contains top-lit galleries that allow Watts's work to be displayed under natural light.
It is one of few galleries in the UK devoted to a single artist, and has recently been marketed as "a national gallery in the heart of a village". The present director is Perdita Hunt and the curator is Mark Bills. Former curators include Wilfrid Blunt
Wilfrid Jasper Walter Blunt
Wilfrid Jasper Walter Blunt was an art teacher, author, artist and curator of the Watts Gallery at Compton, Surrey. He taught art at Haileybury College and Eton College and helped to start a revolution in the hand-writing of British school-children, using the 15th c...
and Richard Jefferies (curator)
Richard Jefferies (curator)
Richard Jefferies was curator of the Watts Gallery for two decades from 1985 to 2006. His role led to his becoming an acknowledged expert on the Victorian painter and sculptor G.F. Watts. Jefferies' uncle had been chief assistant to Mrs Watts in the last ten years of her life and Richard was born...
, one of the foremost authorities on Watts.
Watts Gallery was placed second in the final of the BBC TV series Restoration Village in 2006.
In December 2006 Watts Gallery received a £4.3 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
for renovations to help safeguard the future of the building and its collections. The Gallery plans further fund-raising to reach the projected £10 million restoration costs.
In January 2008 it was announced that the Gallery intends to deaccession
Collection (museum)
A museum is distinguished by a collection of often unique objects that forms the core of its activities for exhibitions, education, research, etc. This differentiates it from an archive or library, where the contents may be more paper-based, replaceable and less exhibition oriented...
and sell two Victorian paintings, Triumph of Love (1880) by Albert Joseph Moore
Albert Joseph Moore
Albert Joseph Moore was an English painter, known for his depictions of langorous female figures set against the luxury and decadence of the classical world....
and Sleeping Woman (1871) by Edward Burne-Jones
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
. The money would be used to maintain the Gallery which is closed from September 2008 until 2010 for renovation.
The Watts Gallery reopened in June 2011 after a major scheme of works, including extension, refurbishment and restoration. This project was designed by ZMMA Architects.
Compton's burial ground, nearby, houses Watts' remains and is dominated by the Italianate Watts Mortuary Chapel
Watts Mortuary Chapel
The Watts Mortuary Chapel is a Gothic Revival chapel and mortuary located in the village of Compton in Surrey.As a follower of the Home Arts and Industries Association, set up by Earl Brownlow in 1885 to encourage handicrafts among the lower classes, when Compton Parish Council created a new...
, designed by Mary Watts.