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9781848222014

The Diary of Mary Watts 1887-1904

Victorian Progressive and Artistic Visionary
  • ISBN-13: 9781848222014
  • Publisher: LUND HUMPHRIES PUBLISHERS LTD
    Imprint: LUND HUMPHRIES PUBLISHERS LTD
  • Edited by Desna Greenhow
  • Price: AUD $103.00
  • Stock: 0 in stock
  • Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
  • Local release date: 14/01/2017
  • Format: Hardback (216.00mm X 138.00mm) 264 pages Weight: 620g
  • Categories: The arts: general issues [AB]
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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.
Foreword by Dr Nicholas Tromans; Introduction; The diary; 1887; 1891; 1893; 1896; 1898; 1902; 1904; Select Bibliography; Index
'It is wonderful to have these diaries in print at last. In Mary Watts, we have a witness to the fin-de-si+¿cle 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 GÇô which makes her diaries all the more captivating for modern readers.' Lynne Truss
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