Nineteenth-century art in Britain was often aimed at teaching audiences moral and ethical lessons through pictures.

These used Biblical and literary subjects that most viewers would be familiar with, through school or church attendance. Although G F Watts was not an active member of the Church of England, he often painted biblical subjects because he believed in improving the character of the nation’s art audiences.

Literary and historical themes were also popular. Watts painted stories from Dante’s Divine Comedy and Shakespeare, British history, and the Italian Renaissance. In Watts’s hands, these pictures were not just illustrations of the story as it was written. He tried to use the quality of the paint itself and the character to convey emotions.