“Hope”
“Hope” is an oil on canvas painting by the English Symbolism artist, George Frederic Watts, from 1886. The painting was first exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery. It was both hailed and lauded by critics. The painting was regarded as a little too modern, though they could not deny the balance in composition and harmony of colors. Watts had originally meant for “Hope” to be part of a series, titled House of Life, which was never completed.
Due to the success of the first, Watts created several additional copies. This painting is the second version he created in 1886, the same year as the first, which he donated to the South Kensington Museum, now the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was also his favorite version. The rest of the copies that he made were sold to private buyers.
“Hope” was instantly popular with the public. Platinotype reproductions allowed greater access to the public who could purchase more inexpensive copies. It also proved to be highly influential to the artists of the Aesthetic movement, who saw the symbolism and allegorical meaning as second place to the beauty of the painting’s form and color.
Watts came up with the idea for this piece after the death of his adopted daughter’s infant. In December 1885, he wrote a letter to his friend, Madeline Wyndham, which read:
“Hope sitting on a globe, with bandaged eyes playing on a lyre which has all the strings broken but one out of which poor little tinkle she is trying to get all the music possible, listening with all her might to the little sound—do you like the idea?“
The woman figure is the depiction of Hope. As first suggested, Watts shows her sitting on the globe, alone, blindfolded, and strumming a harp with only one string left. She is dressed in Grecian robes, the style depicted on the Elgin marbles, which Watts studied extensively in his youth.
This painting has inspired countless artworks and stories. Lord Frederic Leighton used the painting as inspiration for his masterpiece, “Flaming June”, and Pablo Picasso was inspired by it for his own masterpiece, “The Old Guitarist”. In 1922, a film was inspired from it, as well as advertisements and lectures. It was also fairly popular as inspirational material. Printed versions of this painting were famously handed out to inspire the Egyptian public after their defeat from Israel in 1967.
“Hope” is currently in the collections of the Tate Britain in London, England.
For more on George Frederic Watts, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
