<iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-PWMWG4" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden">
Apollo

G.F. Watts: England’s Michelangelo

Watts Gallery, Surrey

NOW CLOSED

G.F. Watts (1817–1904) had a career spanning more than 70 years, and his work has inspired many household names including Rossetti, Picasso, Lucian Freud, and… Barack Obama. Celebrating 200 years since his birth, ‘England’s Michelangelo’ explores Watts as a painter, social activist and philanthropist. Explore the major themes of Watts’s art: colour, cosmos and celebrity – and view some of the artist’s most striking masterpieces. See one of the nation’s favourite portraits, Choosing (1864, National Portrait Gallery), displayed alongside powerful protest paintings and abstract canvases, such as The Sower of the Systems (1902, Art Gallery of Ontario), which is returning to the UK for the first time in over a century. Find out more about the G. F. Watts exhibition from the Watts Gallery’s website.

Preview the exhibition below | See Apollo’s Picks of the Week here

Hope (1885–86), G. F. Watts. Private Collection

Hope (1885–86), G.F. Watts. Private Collection

Choosing (Ellen Terry) (1864), G. F. Watts. © National Portrait Gallery, London

Choosing (Ellen Terry) (1864), G.F. Watts. © National Portrait Gallery, London

The Good Samaritan (1850) G. F. Watts. © Manchester City Galleries

The Good Samaritan (1850) G.F. Watts. © Manchester City Galleries

Endymion (1903), G. F. Watts. Watts Gallery Trust

Endymion (1903), G.F. Watts. Watts Gallery Trust

Henry Edward Manning (1882), G. F. Watts. © National Portrait Gallery, London

Henry Edward Manning (1882), G.F. Watts. © National Portrait Gallery, London

Event website