picture of the god to whom many bow the knee—­“dedicated to his worshippers.”  His leaden face shows a consciousness of power, but not happiness arising from power; his dull eyes see nothing, though his mind’s eye sees one thing clearly—­the money bags on his lap.  The two frail creatures of youth and maiden, “types of humanity” as Watts said, are crushed by his heavy limbs, while behind a fire burns continuously, perhaps also within his massive breast.

Portraits.—­In portraiture, as in other forms of art, Watts had distinct and peculiar views.  He gradually came to the opinion, which he adopted as his first rule in portraiture, that it was his duty, not merely to copy the external features of the sitter, but to give what might be called an intellectual copy.  He declared it to be possible and necessary for the sitter and painter to attain a unity of feeling and a sympathy, by which he (the painter) was inspired.  Watts’ earlier portraits, while being far from characterless, are not instances of the application of this principle.  There is in them a slight tendency to eighteenth-century ideal portraiture, which so often took the sitter (and the observer too) back to times and attitudes, backgrounds and thunderstorms, that never were and never will be.

Watts, however, was slightly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite school.  He might, had he wished, have been their portrait painter—­and indeed, the picture of the comely Mrs. Hughes, a kind, motherly creature, with a background of distant fields, minutely painted, is quite on the lines of Pre-Raphaelite realism.

[Illustration:  Plate VI.—­Love triumphant

(At the Tate Gallery)

Time and Death having travelled together through the ages, have run their course and are at length overthrown.  Love alone arises on immortal wings, triumphantly, with outspread arms to the eternal skies.

     Given to the nation in 1900.]

Somewhat of the same character is the portrait of Mrs. Nassau Senior, who, with one knee on a sofa, is shown tending flowers, her rippling golden hair falling over her shoulders.  A full-length portrait of Miss Mary Kirkpatrick Brunton, dated 1842, also belongs to the old style.  Watts had a passion for human loveliness, and in his day some of the great beauties sat to him.  The “Jersey Lily” (Mrs. Langtry) with her simple headdress and downcast eye, appeared at the Academy of 1879.  “Miss Rachel Gurney” is a wonderful portrait of a flaming soul imprisoned in a graceful form and graceless dress.  Miss Gurney is shown standing, turning slightly to the right with the head again turned over the right shoulder, while the whole effect of energy seems to be concentrated in the flashing eyes.  Watts was able to interpret equally well personalities of a very different character, and perhaps the canvas representing Miss Edith Villiers is one of the most successful of his spiritual portraits.  Miss Dorothy Dene, whose