George Frederic Watts

George Frederic Watts (1817–1904) was born in Marylebone, London, the son of a poor piano-maker, and named after Handel, on whose birthday he was born. He learned sculpture from the age of ten with William Behnes, studied the Elgin Marbles devotedly and entered the Royal Academy Schools at eighteen, though he did not stay long. A prize in the 1843 competition to decorate the new Houses of Parliament paid for a long stay in Italy, where Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel inspired him. He became known for allegorical paintings such as Hope and Love and Life, conceived as part of a symbolic cycle he called the House of Life, and is associated with the Symbolist movement. He also painted portraits of many leading figures of his day and worked as a sculptor; a cast of his Physical Energy stands in Kensington Gardens. He twice refused a baronetcy but accepted the Order of Merit in 1902. The Watts Gallery near Compton in Surrey, built to show his work, opened in 1904, shortly before his death. Here: Time, Death and Judgement.