As we celebrate the 175^th birthday anniversary of Mary Watts, join art historian and biographer Veronica Franklin Gould to hear more about the inspiration behind her latest book celebrating the early years of Mary Watts, Valiant Seton: Mary Fraser Tytler of Aldourie. As this day marks the launch of the new title, be one of the first to receive a copy of the book, included with your talk ticket. Following the talk there will be an opportunity to ask questions and for book signings by the author.

The first biography to focus on Mary’s life before marriage, Valiant Seton examines the pivotal role her Fraser Tytler ancestors played in Scotland’s literary heritage, her upbringing in a remote highland castle, the flamboyance of her decorative art and her entry into the epicentre of the English artworld. A disastrous love affair in Rome tormented the young artist for years, punctuating her march into the heart of her ‘painter of painters.’

Married to the world-famous Victorian artist George Frederic Watts, Mary was a suffragist, designer and pioneer of the Celtic Revival, who elevated the status of craftswomen on both sides of the Atlantic.

Valiant Seton is a compelling account of Mary’s turbulent life and emergence from her aristocratic chrysalis into a social reforming craftswoman and life-partner extraordinaire of England’s Michelangelo.

Veronica Franklin Gould, art historian, editor, curator and biographer of the Victorian artist George Frederic Watts O.M. R.A. (1817-1904), writes and lectures on the life and work of G. F. Watts, of the craftswoman Mary Seton Watts (1849-1938), the pioneer photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79) and the actress Ellen Terry (1847-1928). After an early career in publishing, Veronica trained at Christie's and published guidebooks to the Surrey village of Compton and Watts Chapel: An Arts & Crafts Memorial.

In 2004 Veronica’s biography of G F Watts was published G. F. Watts: The Last Great Victorian (Yale University Press, 2004).