The Watts Gallery

Limnerslease (taken in 2022)

I hadn't thought I'd ever go back to the Watts Gallery, as it's a devil to get to without transport (I gave up on the bus four years ago and used taxi's), but a friend was keen to visit and she asked another friend who drove. So the trip was on!

We went last week on the hottest day so far this year.The weather was beautiful. We had gone to see an exhibition about the Pattle Sisters, who were very influential in the art world with Julia Margaret Cameroon being the most celebrated. She was a photographer and bought a house in Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight, called Dimbola. It is still there, and I have visited. She, like her sisters, had connections to GF Watts, the Pre-Raphaelites and the Bloomsbury Group (all of them are favourites of mine!)

On arrival we managed to tag onto a guided tour of the gallery which was most interesting, as I found out things I didn't know, like GF Watts painted Edward Burne-Jones' daughter, and there it was in the gallery. Watts painted landscapes, but portraiture was where his true talent lay. He was also a man concerned about poverty and downfallen people. He painted the destitute as well as famous people, and while he didn't paint like the Pre-Raphaelites, he did paint 'stories'.

Map of the Artists Village

Watts was born in 1817 and in 1864 was briefly married to the actress Ellen Terry. However, the love of his life was Mary Fraser Tytler (born 1849 in India) whom he married in 1886. He was the visionary and she was the do-er! In 1891 they took possession of their newly built house at Limnerslease. The two worked together, and Mary soon set up classes for the people of Compton village.

The whole Artist Village is stunning. The house can be found over the road from the main gallery, and set in grounds which are being returned to the way they were when the Watts' lived there. It is peaceful (though you can hear the A3 in the distance). The house is open to the public. There is an exhibition room and a studio,  but only two rooms and the hall are available to see. There is a plan to open up the rooms upstairs, but all this costs money. Since I was last there, they have opened a small cafe there (as well as the main one at the gallery). The grounds are lovely with several pathways to follow.

The gardens around the house

Notebook for decorations to the chapel

Panels retrieved from Aldershot chapel when it closed (Watts)

The studio

Downstairs rooms

At the main gallery there is the exhibition space and the sculpture gallery where you can find a huge cast of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Around the gallery are beautiful gardens, the old pottery, and a small exhibition room. The main entrance has a shop, an upstairs exhibition space, and round the corner is the cafe. Busy though this was, the service was very fast and the food well presented.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Julia Maragaret Cameron

One gallery is dedicated to William and Evelyn de Morgan whose gallery used to be in Wandsworth. This painting by Evelyn de Morgan reminds me of the staircase painted by Edward Burne-Jones.

The main gallery

Finally, there is the chapel, which is out of this world. Four years ago I blogged about the Watts Gallery. I fell in love with the place then, and the chapel, in particular, amazed me all over again. The work is beautifully done and so colourful. The chapel can be found a little way down the road surrounded by a cemetery. The chapel reminds me of the Bloomsbury Group, the way they painted the house at Charleston, but is also that slight Pre-Raphaelite look about it too.

Detail of the outside of the chapel

Ceiling

The Watts' are buried in the cemetery and the cloisters are built with terracotta bricks, much like the chapel. From the benches inside the cloisters you get a lovely view over Surrey. I could have sat there all day in weather like that. 

Detail on a bench

There is a walk you can do (route is in the guide book). I've never managed to walk it. Maybe one day I will. The countryside around there is lovely, and the gallery is only a few miles from Guildford.

We left reluctantly. It is a place you don't forget. Highly recommended.