Minotaur1.0006_Watts

Minotaur1.0006_Watts

George Frederick Watts, "The Minotaur," 1885, oil on canvas, Tate Britain. no. 1634.

Higher-res images are available on the web; however, many reproductions fail to include (i.e. they crop out) the ship on the horizon. The ship is a critically important detail. Watts' inclusion of the approaching ship may be reminiscent of Theseus' departing ship in Ariadne paintings, e.g. DionysusAriadne1.0008_Titian Note also the little bird crushed under the monster's paw.

Watts paints a mythopoetic commentary upon W.T. Stead's exposée regarding the Victorian traffic in child prostitution, "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon," Pall Mall Gazette 6 thru 10 July 1885. In tandem, in painting and in text, Watts and Stead excoriate human viciousness, "the greed and lust associated with modern civilisations." (Hare)

The painting's essential message (man's propensity to carnal lust) is repeated more explicitly by many artists of the 19th and 20th centuries — Watts, Rodin, especially Picasso who engaged the Minotaur in some 50 works, e.g. Minotaur1.0018_Picasso— often depicted in the Minotaur the symbol of man's beastial nature or his attempts to control it. And Rubens' "Minotaur" is interesting for mixing the species differently. However, Watts uses classical mythology as part of social discourse, delivering perhaps the most pointed call for social reform the Minotaur has ever been invoked to deliver.

Stead's social commentary pulled no punches addressing the problem most aggressively. "In ancient times, if we may believe the myths of Hellas, Athens, after a disastrous campaign, was compelled by her conqueror to send once every nine years a tribute to Crete of seven youth and seven maidens. ... On arrival [the tribute] were flung into the famous labyrinth of Daedalus, there to wander about blindly until such time as they were devoured by the Minotaur.... The fact that the Athenians should have taken so bitterly to heart the paltry maiden tribute that once in nine years they had to pay to the Minotaur seems incredible, almost inconceivable. This very night in London, and every night, year in and year out, not seven maidens only, but many times seven, selected almost as much by chance as those who in the Athenian market-place drew lots as to which would be flung into the Cretan labyrinth, will be offered up as the Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon ... with the portals of the maze of London brotheldom. ... The maw of the London Minotaur is insatiable." (Stead, cf. link upper left) After reading Stead's article, Watts sketched the idea — the charcoal is preserved in the Watts Gallery and the event is documented in Barrington (cf. Gould, Vision of G.F. Watts, p. 70.) The painting followed within days.

J.O. Baylen, ‘Stead, William Thomas (1849–1912)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2010

D. M. Sutherland, ‘Watts, (George) Fiddes (1873–1960)’, rev. Robin Gibson, ONB. — material on the 1885 publicity and legislation

VictorianWebincludes the detail that Stead tried to prove the easy availability of child prostitutes that he personally purchased one, but then was incarcerated for this crime.