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6 alternative things to spot on your next visit to Watts Gallery - Artists' Village.


1. Aldous Huxley's grave

Aldous Huxley was a writer and novelist, best known for his groundbreaking dystopian novel Brave New World. Huxley was born in Godalming in 1894, and while he spent most of his life living in London, Oxford and Los Angeles, his ashes are interred in the family grave in Watts Cemetery.

Grave in cemetery

Aldous Huxley's grave in Watts Cemetery

2. Birdbath at Watts's memorial

George Frederic Watts was an avid supporter of the protection of birds and he painted several works on the subject including A Dedication, which shows a weeping angel standing over slaughtered birds, and The Wounded Heron, which was his first work accepted for inclusion at the Royal Academy. This birdbath sits atop his grave in Watts Cemetery as a memorial to his love of animals.

Bird bath by grave

Birdbath at Watts's memorial

3. Horses

Before George completed his equestrian sculpture, Physical Energy, George took on the subject of horses in several paintings. A Patient Life of Unrequited Toil - on display in Limnerslease - shows a serene grey horse standing within a meadow of flora local to Surrey and expresses Watts's sympathy for the suffering of animals. You can also see the original Physical Energy weather vane on display at Limnerslease.

Painting of horse and weather vane in shape of horse

4. Mary Watts's design for the Pelican Rug

Though forgotten by history for a period, Mary Watts's reputation as a designer and ceramicist has been revitalised in recent years. Visit the Mary Watts Gallery at Watts Studios to see her intricate and symbolic works, including the design for the Pelican Rug, sold by Liberty & Co., which is now in the main sitting room at Limnerslease.

Living room with decorated ceiling, sofa and display case

Inside Limnerslease house

5. Clytie in the sunken garden

Watts's original marble carving of Clytie was his only sculptural subject exhibited during his lifetime. It was praised retrospectively as a precursor of the New Sculpture movement, and when Watts sent George Eliot a cast in 1870, she called it 'The finest present I ever had in my life.' The marble version will be on display in England's Michelangelo and visitors can see a beautiful terracotta version of Clytie in the gardens in front of Watts Gallery.

Terracotta version of Clytie on a terracotta plinth in the sunken garden outside Watts Gallery

Compton Potters' Art Guild, Clytie in the Sunken Garden, early 20th century, terracotta

6. Curiosities case in the Sculpture Gallery

The sheer scale of George Frederic Watts's major sculptural works, Physical Energy and the Memorial to Alfred Tennyson, can often overwhelm visitors to the Sculpture Gallery. However, the wooden case along the wall of this gallery is home to an array of small-scale treasures including plaster casts of arms, legs and hands to models for Tennyson's head.

A range of sculpture casts of hands in case

Hand casts in Sculpture Gallery