Watts Gallery

Watts Gallery - Dates for your diary

Watts Gallery is now six open days a week, including Tuesdays, until 27 October. Future changes to opening times will be updated in the NEWS.

Our new exhibition, A New Paradise, can be viewed in Watts Contemporary Gallery until Sunday 15 December. Featuring new work by five artists reinterpreting William Morris's love of the natural world for the 21st century, it sits alongside our ongoing Art of Wallpaper: Morris & Co. Free entry, all works for sale.
Get ready for spooky fun this October half term with Monsters, Magic & Mischief, running Tuesday 21 October to Sunday 1 November. Follow the woodland witches trail, brew concoctions at the potion station and help build a monster menagerie across the Gallery, Limnerslease and woodland. Costumes are warmly encouraged. For younger makers, our Halloween Craft Club runs three sessions a day on Wednesday 28 and Friday 30 October (£8 per child, all materials included).
Watts Tots returns on Friday 2 October, with a Tiny Treasures theme, while Clay Club turns spooky later this month with pumpkin lanterns, monster mayhem and a ghostly sweetie jar from Thursday 28 to Saturday 31 October.
For the grown-ups, author Anna Brook leads a day of guided creative writing inspired by Mary Seton Watts on Saturday 3 October, and Curatorial Advisor Hilary Underwood takes us behind the scenes for an hour in (and out of) the archive on Thursday 8 October. Our free with admission Art of Wallpaper curator's tour also running on the Thursdays 1 and 15 October.
If you hold a Surrey Libraries card, bring it along on Saturday 10 October for free entry and explore A New Paradise as well as our various other galleries at no cost. And if you're looking for a way to get more involved locally, come to our Volunteer Recruitment Morning on Thursday 15 October (10.30am–11.30am) for a chat, a mini tour and a hot drink. Email volunteers@wattsgallery.org.uk to register.

Compton residents get 50% off admission! Valid with a proof of address.
Check the website for details of events. For more information and to book tickets:wattsgallery.org.uk/whats-on

Nestled in the beautiful Surrey Hills, Watts Gallery first opened its doors to the public in 1904. It is unique in the UK being the only purpose-built art gallery created for the display of works by a single artist, the great Victorian artist G.F. Watts (1817-1904). Over one hundred paintings and sculptures are on permanent display; spanning a period of 70 years, they include portraits, landscapes and major symbolic works.

Perched on a hillside, overlooking the Gallery sits Limnerslease, the Autumn and Winter home and studio of G.F. and Mary Watts, originally built in the Arts & Crafts style. Limnerslease recently underwent a major restoration project. Don’t miss the chance to join a guided tour and glimpse the start of this nationally important project.

To this day, the legacy of G.F. and Mary Watts lives on, with artists working onsite and a contemporary gallery selling artwork by local and national artists. Watts Gallery also runs an extensive events programme for families, adults and young people, offering the opportunity to improve your art skills, attend a lecture, or meet one of the artists in residence.

George Frederic Watts 1817 - 1904

The English symbolist painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts lived in Compton during the latter years of his life.

George Frederic Watts occupies a unique place in the history of British painting. Famous in his day as a painter and sculptor, he gained the nickname of ‘England’s Michelangelo’. His aim was to re-invent British history painting in a grand manner, making images that were both uplifting and thought provoking. He believed art should also be accessible to everyone, not just the rich, so he gave many of his pictures to public galleries, helping to found the Tate Gallery in 1897.

Watts was a serious individual, so it may therefore come as no surprise that his marriage to the teenage actress Ellen Terry, was short lived. In later life, he married Mary Fraser-Tytler (1886) who was 36 years his junior. Mary devoted the rest of her life to her husband, both during his life and after his death.

In 1891 Watts made Limnerslease his winter retreat and it remained so until his death in 1904. Mary Watts, the inspiration behind the move to Compton and the Chapel, continued to live there until she died in 1938.

Shortly before his death in 1904, G.F. Watts saw the opening of the first and main portion of 'Watts Picture Gallery'.

Cicely Robinson is Curator.

G.F. Watts - Lion & Tiger Fighting. 1830. Aged 13

Watts Chapel

Watts Gallery