The Whisper of the Muse / Portrait of G.F. Watts

April 1865

Medium

Albumen silver print

Dimensions

26 × 21.4 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-521212

> Each year George Frederick Watts (1817-1904) visited Freshwater for the summer, where Julia Margaret Cameron had the opportunity not only to converse with him but also to take his picture. An indefatigable theorist and proselytizer, he was an artistic missionary who sought to improve the condition of mankind through his art. In a letter to Cameron, Watts described his intentions: “If I could carry out my feeling perfectly, my pictures would be solemn and monumental in character, noble and beautiful in form, and rich in colour.” Although widely known as a portraitist, his preference was for the creation of grand allegorical compositions. Like Watts, Cameron was preoccupied with reconciling traditional content in art with modern forms of expression. > > In *The Whisper of the Muse* Watts is presented as an inspired prophet, although his occupation has been altered to that of a musician. The idea for this photograph may have been inspired by Rembrandt’s painting *The Evangelist Matthew Inspired by the Angel* (1661), now in the Louvre, in which the child muse whispers in the saint’s ear as he composes his gospel. Cameron made at least two negatives at this sitting but the variant o…