GEORGE FREDERIC WATTS, O.M., R.A. | STUDIES FOR ALFRED INCITING THE SAXONS TO PREVENT THE LANDING OF THE DANES

Sotheby’s, London, 27 June 1987, lot 204, where purchased by the present owner

Painted in Italy in 1846, this is a study for Watts’ monumental picture at the Palace of Westminster Alfred Inciting the Saxons to Prevent the Landing of the Danes. John Ruskin made reference to this in a letter to a friend dated 1849; 'Do you know Watts? The man who is now employed on Houses of Parliament – to my mind the only real painter of history or thought we have in England'. The present sketch has been known in the past as Studies of a Pugilist which may refer to the model having been a boxer or it may simply be because of the musculature of the figures and ignorance of which picture the figures relate to.