The Diary of Mary Watts 1887-1904

Victorian Progressive and Artistic Visionary

Desna Greenhow

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Hardback

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English

Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd
15 November 2016

Art & design styles: Arts & Crafts style; Individual artists, art monographs

Mary Watts (1849-1938) was a leading designer of the Arts & Crafts period, the founder of the Compton Pottery and the wife of the great Victorian painter George Frederic Watts (1817-1904). She was also an avid diarist and filled copious volumes - each known affectionately as 'Fatima' - with her musings on art and society and her day-to-day life with an artist at the height of his powers.

Never previously published, due to the tiny, almost illegible handwriting, the diary volumes have now been painstakingly transcribed by Desna Greenhow, who has extracted the most illuminating passages for reproduction here. Including detailed annotations, an introductory essay and short writings at the start of each year represented, this book chronicles life in the artistic, literary and political circles of the time, while also providing invaluable insights into Mary's own achievements - most notably her management of the building and decorating of her unique Watts Cemetery Chapel.

For all those fascinated by the Wattses and the society in which they lived, this is an invaluable resource that makes an important contribution to nineteenth-century studies.

Edited by: Desna Greenhow
Imprint: Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 612g
ISBN: 9781848222014
ISBN 10: 1848222017
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 15 November 2016
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Dr Desna Greenhow has worked on curatorial projects at the Watts Gallery since 2003, following a career in lecturing and writing and as Director of the Otterton Mill Centre and Working Museum, Devon. She edited Mary Watts’ The Word in the Pattern - with seven essays and has contributed to several other Watts Gallery publications.

Reviews for The Diary of Mary Watts 1887-1904: Victorian Progressive and Artistic Visionary

`It is wonderful to have these diaries in print at last. In Mary Watts, we have a witness to the fin-de-siecle art circle whose aesthetic eye combines with a loving and thankful heart. Nowadays we would say that such happy wifely devotion to a 'Signor' must be a kind of self-deceit, but it's clear from the diaries that it isn't. Her feelings are genuine. There just aren't women nowadays like Mary Watts - which makes her diaries all the more captivating for modern readers.' Lynne Truss