Ariadne2.0004

George Frederick Watts, 1817-1904, "Ariadne in Naxos, Deserted by Theseus" 1869, oil on canvas, Private Collection. Exhibited at Dudley Gallery 1869, Grosvenor Gallery 1881-82 and Brimingham 1888; owned by Lord Davey, resold by Christies in August 1917 "at Lord Wimborne's sale... bought by A.L. Christie, Esq." (Mary Watts Catalogue, notes).

Watts engaged this same subject with much different perspectives across four decades — in 1863, 1875 (=1.0183), 1896 (=1.0184), and at other points in his career. Ariadne's abandonment is among the first mythological subjects Watts painted upon his formative visit to the Aegean in the early 1860s. The 1869 Ariadne is reminiscent of other Watts paintings of the 60s for which he posed the household maid known as Long Mary (cf. his "Wife of Pluto" and "Study with the Peacock's Feathers"). V.F. Gould compares the 1869 Ariadne to Manet's "Olympia" (1863), both paintings depicting "women whose lover is absent". One ought also to consider John Vanderlyn's 1812 Ariadne (=Ariadne1.0130_Vanderlyn), which has Sebastiano Ricci's 1710 (=DionysosAriadne1.0085_Ricci) as forebear.

This work's title I expostulate from Mary Watts' catalogue (PDF copy provided by Watts Gallery, with thanks!, August 2017.) Mary Watts'description, however, indicates the picture's dimensions as 65 x 44 inches, considerably larger than Gould's item 20 (shown at right). Moreover, the M. Watts catalogue entry describes it thus: "The tone in general is deeper [than the 1875?], the sky and mountains dark, one leopard is alert the other rolls on its back. The red skein is a broad mass of colour." None of which details match with this picture.

Note this picture's similarity to the "study for the half-length of Ariadne" auctioned at Christies London "Victorian Pictures," Sale 6971, Lot 127 23 Nov 2004. (=Ariadne2.0007_Watts)