Explore the works of 'England's Michelangelo'

George Frederic Watts was a talented painter who made a varied range of paintings in oil paint and watercolour throughout his long career.

He was a popular portrait painter, and his ‘Hall of Fame’ series is an important record of the famous British figures of his day. His early paintings show the influence of historic painting traditions, encouraged by his studies at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Watts was strongly influenced by the sixteenth-century art he saw while travelling and studying in Italy in the 1840s. Yet, the works he painted upon his return in 1847 show a stark realism, inspired by the shocking poverty he saw in London.

Watts painted landscapes throughout his life, from romantic Italian views to the trees outside his Surrey studio. Over the years, Watts turned to Symbolism, with his paintings becoming increasingly mysterious and complex in their meanings. Some even verge on expressionist or abstract, both styles which artists began working in after his death in 1904.