June 7 2005
Watts Gallery has acquired a major portrait by the eminent Victorian artist G F Watts OM RA (1817 – 1904) at the Sotheby’s Victorian and Edwardian Art Sale in London Tuesday 7 June 2005 for £232,000 with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Art Collections Fund, and a private donor. Entitled Alexander Constantine Ionides and his wife Euterpe, with their children Constantine Alexander, Aglaia, Luke and Alecco, the oil on canvas painting measuring 153 by 1841/2cms depicts the family of one of the most remarkable of all Victorian patrons.
Watts painted five generations of the Ionides family and mentored their taste in acquiring works of art. Ionides support enabled Watts to pursue his large scale projects on allegorical themes. Watts Gallery does not possess a painting which reflects the important relationship between Watts and the Ionides family and the painting marks the high point in Watts’s early portraiture. Watts Gallery has received support from members of the Ionides family in securing the painting which will be of considerable interest to visitors, students of Victorian social and art history, and will be used for educational projects with young people and families. Christopher Wood was bidding on behalf of Watts Gallery.
The portrait will contribute to Watts Gallery’s plans to increase visitors and to attract support for the refurbishment of the Grade II listed Arts and Crafts building in which the permanent collection is housed. Two of the children depicted in the picture are in traditional Greek costume adding an interesting insight into the multicultural Britain of Victorian times. Barbara Bryant, Watts Scholar and Curator of the National Portrait Gallery centenary exhibition has described the portrait as “by far the most important of Watts’s early portraits and as such it should be in a public collection and certainly the best collection would be Watts Gallery. The portrait has real warmth as Watts used his feeling towards the sitters to bring them alive as individuals. This approach became the hallmark of Watts’s future portraiture and we are seeing it in this work for the first time.”
Commenting on the purchase for the collection Richard Ormond, Chairman of the Watts Gallery Trust said “We are delighted to have received such support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Art Fund, a private donor and members of the Ionides family, to secure this portrait for Watts Gallery. It fills an important gap in our collection and it is a fascinating picture for our present and future visitors”.
Tessa Hilder, Heritage Lottery Fund Regional Manager for the South East, said: “The Heritage Lottery Fund is delighted to support the acquisition of this fascinating portrait of the Ionides family. It will make a significant addition to the Watts Gallery's collection, giving visitors an insight into the life of a prosperous 19th-century family. The painting will be enjoyed by many as well as providing the Gallery with an invaluable educational resource; an important requisite for our grant."