Mary Seton Watts 1849 – 1938
(née Fraser, Tytler)
Craftswoman, designer, social reformer and suffragist.
25 November 1849 – 6 September 1938
Education
1870 Studied at the South Kensington Art Training School.
1872-3 Studied sculpting at the Slade School of Fine Art, one of the first women to do so.
Studied under sculptor Aime-Jules Dalou.
Some Key Achievements and Interests
Collaborated with sister Christiana illustrating some of her books of poetry.
Worked as a painter and taught clay modelling to children in deprived areas of London.
Held a long-term conviction that art was ‘for all’.
Became a leading member of the Home Arts and Industries Association (formerly the Collage Arts Association) set up to revive traditional rural crafts, teaching working class crafting skills.
1890s Designed gesso ceilings for her house in Limnerslease.
Collaborated with her husband George Frederic Watts on the building and decoration, by Mary, of Watts Mortuary Chapel in Compton. She trained local people to create beasts and figures to help decorate the building to her design.
1893 Exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
1899 Set up the Compton Potters’ Arts Guild which she ran until 1934.
1904 Created and ran the Watts Gallery in memory of her husband, George.
Wrote a biography of George’s life and work, George Frederic Watts, The Annals of an Artist’s Life, published 1912.
Designed gesso decoration for the military chapel at Aldershot.
Issues
Cared for her husband while he was ill.
Stopped painting portraits on her marriage to George Watts, a famous portrait artist of his day.
Her work was and has been overshadowed by that of her husband George Frederic Watts.
Connection to Bloomsbury
Female Networks
Julia Margaret Cameron, Mary Prinsep, May Hitchens, and others from Slade and art world and her community networks.
Works
C1873 Mother and Child sculpture
1912 George Frederic Watts, The Annals of an Artist’s Life 1905 The Word in the Pattern
Legacy
2016 Studio of Mary Seton Watts at Limnerslease opened to the public.
Further reading