THE GREAT MOONLIGHT PORTRAIT SIGNED BY WATTS

TENNYSON (ALFRED, Lord, 1809-1892, poet) FINE MEZZOTINT PORTRAIT OF TENNYSON, proof before lettering, by Sir Frank Short (1857-1945) after G.F.Watts (1817-1904), half-length, turned to the right, signed in pencil below the image by both G.F. Watts and Frank Short, the original portrait 'signed' on the image and dated 1859, on Japan paper, size of platemark 16 x 11¼, inches size of aperture 16½ x 12 inches, overall size of mount 27½ x 21 inches, [Robert Dunthorne at the Rembrandt Head, Vigo Street] undated [but 1903]

This is often regarded as the best portrait of Tennyson by Watts, and Watts himself spoke of it as the great work of his life. It was dubbed in the Prinsep circle as the 'great moonlight portrait.' While the original, now at Eastnor Castle, was being painted Tennyson is said to have asked Watts what was in his mind when he painted a portrait, and to have embodied the reply in his poem 'Lancelot and Elaine'.

'As when a painter, poring on a face, / Divinely thro' all hindrance finds the man / Behind it, and so paints him that his face / The shape and colour of a mind and life, / Lives for his children, ever at its best.'

Watts was a passionate admirer of Tennyson and his work. Martin Hardie, The Mezzotints and Engravings of Sir Frank Short, states that Short took early proofs of his mezzotints to show Watts at his country house near Guildford called Limnerslease.

£950