Study of a boy's head for 'The Red Cross Knight Overcoming the Dragon', by 1853

George Frederic Watts RA (1817 - 1904)

RA Collection: Art

On free display in Collection Gallery

A life-size drawing in black chalk of the head of a young man with his left hand raised to touch the brim of a 'petasus' style hat. The head and arm are drawn in some detail but the rest of the drawing is sketchy.

This study is for the figure on the lower right of Watts's painting 'The Red Cross Knight Overcoming the Dragon' (1853, Upper Waiting Hall, Palace of Westminster). The size of the drawing suggests that it was used by Watts when preparing the wall- painting itself. The subject, like 'Britomart and her Nurse' is taken from Spenser's Faerie Queene (Book 1, Canto XII). The figure in this drawing is one of those who, seeing the knight kill the dragon:

'Heaped together in rude rablement

To see the face of that victorious man:

Whom all admired, as from heauen sent,

And gazd vpon with gaping wonderment.'

There are a number of oil sketches by Watts for the whole composition (at least one in a private collection and several at the Watts Gallery) which vary considerably and at least one does not include this figure at all. The Watts Gallery also has a damaged cartoon for the mural.

Further reading:

Clare Willsdon, Mural Painting in Britain 1840-1940 - Image and Meaning , Oxford, 2000, fig. 27