:'' Not to be confused with
George Frederic Watts
George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817, in London – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical work ...
''.
George Fiddes Watt (15 February 1873 – 22 November 1960) was a
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
portrait painter and engraver.
Biography
Watt studied art at
Gray's School of Art
Gray's School of Art is the Robert Gordon University, Robert Gordon University's art school, located in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is one of the oldest established fine art institutions in Scotland and one of Scotland's five art schools today, and ...
, Edinburgh and the
Royal Scottish Academy
The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country’s national academy of art. It promotes contemporary Scottish art.
The Academy was founded in 1826 by eleven artists meeting in Edinburgh. Originally named the Scottish Academy, it became the ...
, Edinburgh.
He was elected to the
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...
(RSA) in 1924 and received an honorary LL.D. degree from the
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...
in 1955.
[
Watt was sculpted by ]Henry Snell Gamley
Henry Snell Gamley (commonly called Harry Gamley) (1865–1928) was a Scottish sculptor specialising in war memorials and sculpture on tombs. He was however also responsible for other figurative sculpture on prominent Edinburgh buildings ...
in 1912, Watt's son Albert having been sculpted by Gamley four years previously.[Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951 http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib6_1210158597] A bronze statue of Watt by Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones, made in 1942, is in Aberdeen.
Works
Watt's large output includes paintings of many famous people of his time in Britain.
Portraits
; Lawyers
* Viscount Haldane
A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status.
In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...
(Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...
)[
* Viscount Reading (]Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...
)[
; Divines
* William Paterson Paterson
; Scientists
* Sir ]J. J. Thomson
Sir Joseph John Thomson (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) was a British physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics, credited with the discovery of the electron, the first subatomic particle to be discovered.
In 1897, Thomson showed that c ...
(Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
)[
; Politicians
* ]H.H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of ...
[
* ]A.J. Balfour
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the L ...
(National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to:
*National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra
*National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred
*National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C.
*National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...
)Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon
Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, (25 April 1862 – 7 September 1933), better known as Sir Edward Grey, was a British Liberal statesman and the main force behind British foreign policy in the era of the First World War.
An adher ...
Sir William Slater Brown
Sir William Slater Brown (1844–1917) was an early 20th century Scottish businessman who served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1909 to 1912.
Life
He was born in 1844 the second son of Henry Raeburn Brown (b.1806) a tailor, and his wife He ...
, Lord Provost of Edinburgh
The Right Honourable Lord Provost of Edinburgh is the convener of the City of Edinburgh local authority, who is elected by City_of_Edinburgh_Council, the city council and serves not only as the chair of that body, but as a figurehead for the e ...
;Academics
*Thomas Martin Lindsay
Thomas Martin Lindsay FRSE (1843–1914) was a Scottish historian, professor and principal of the Free Church College, Glasgow. He wrote chiefly on church history, his major works including ''Luther and the German Reformation'' (1900), and ''A His ...
Thomas Martin Lindsay
portrait by George Fiddes Watt at bbc.co.uk/arts/, accessed 19 June 2013
Mezzotint engravings
* Robert Bannatyne Finlay (Royal Courts of Justice
The Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is a court building in Westminster which houses the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The High Court also sits on circuit and in other major cities. Designed by Ge ...
)
Collections and exhibitions
Watt's work was exhibited at the Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
from 1906 to 1930. His portrait of his mother is in the Tate Gallery
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
's collection.[
]
Family
His third son, Alexander Stuart Watt (1909–1967) was a journalist based in Paris. Alastair Fiddes Watt (b. 1954) is also a landscape painter.[
]
References
Bibliography
* Chamot, Mary; Farr, Dennis; Butlin, Martin. ''The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture'', London 1964, II.
*
External links
*
Wattart.com: Family: George Fiddes Watt
Invaluable: George Fiddes Watt
Aberdeen Art Gallery: portrait of George Fiddes Watt, 1911
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watt, George Fiddes
1873 births
1960 deaths
19th-century engravers
19th-century Scottish painters
20th-century British printmakers
20th-century engravers
20th-century Scottish painters
Alumni of Gray's School of Art
Alumni of the Royal Scottish Academy
Artists from Aberdeen
Scottish engravers
Scottish male painters
Scottish portrait painters
19th-century Scottish male artists
20th-century Scottish male artists