Humanitarian Paintings.—The earliest of these, “The Wounded Heron,” asks our pity for the injured bird, and forbids us to join in the enthusiasm of the huntsman who hurries for his suffering prize. The same thought is expressed in the beautiful “Shuddering Angel,” who is covering his face with his hands at the sight of the mangled plumage scattered on the altar of fashion. In the large canvases, “A Patient Life of Unrequited Toil,” and “Midday Rest,” we have paintings of horses, both of them designed to teach us consideration for the “friend of man.” “The Sempstress” sings us Tom Hood’s “Song of the Shirt.”
“The Good Samaritan” (see Plate VII.) properly belongs to this series. It was presented by the artist to the citizens of Manchester, as an expression of his admiration of Thomas Wright, the prison philanthropist, whose work was at that time (1852) creating a sensation in the north of England. If we compare this painting with other Biblical subjects executed at a later date, we see how much Watts’ work has gained since then. The almost smooth texture and the dark shadows of the Manchester picture have given way to ruggedness and transparency. Still, “The Good Samaritan” is simple and excellent in purpose and composition.
A little known painting entitled “Cruel Vengeance,” seems to be a forecast of “Mammon”; a creature with human form and vulture’s head presses under his hand a figure like the maiden whose head rests on Mammon’s knee. In “Greed and Labour” the seer’s eye pierces through the relations between the worker and his master; Labour is a fine strong figure loaded with the implements of his toil, with no feeling of subjection in his manly face; on the other hand, the miser creeping behind him, clutching the money bags, represents that Greed who, as Mammon, is seen sitting on his throne of death. “Mammon” is, however, the greatest of the three, containing in itself the ideas and forms of the other two. It is a terrible