George Frederick Watts

pre-raphaelite

George Frederick Watts Paintings 1817 - 1904 Painter, Sculptor, England, Symbolism

Thetis, 1867

oil on canvas, 192 x 54 cm, 74 x 21 in.

Trustees of the Watts Gallery

Nude Art

9 from 10

Browse Artists Alphabetically by Name

Choose from these available sizes

painting: WAG009 size: 40x10 inches price: $895 add to cart

Time needed to complete and deliver your order depends on the volume and complexity of the paintings and we keep you informed about the stage of completion throughout the process.

The painter usually needs 3-4 weeks to achieve the highest quality of the reproduction and get it dry for shipping.

Thetis, 1867 by George Frederick Watts is entirely handmade without use of artificial methods. It is painted on linen canvas with oil paints of the highest French quality.

We are professional graduates of art schools, which gives us the opportunity to reproduce to the highest point of perfection the style and technique of the original old master. With more than 20 years of experience and thousands of satisfied customers our oil reproductions are the best, always bearing the full spirit of the original.

Shipping is worldwide by DHL and can be tracked online. The canvas is delivered unframed, rolled in a postal tube.

Shipping cost is fixed $75, regardless of order total.

Delivery by DHL is fast - up to 3 business days.

ask for another size

✔ Hand painted oil on canvas

✔ Delivered within 3 weeks

✔ Lifetime warranty

shipping information

OIL PAINTING: Thetis, 1867
Thetis was the first of a succession of standing female nudes adapted from the format made famous by Ingres with his Venus Anadyomene and La Source, the original of which Watts probably saw at Ingres's studio in Paris in 1856. According to Mary Watts, the artist produced three versions of Thetis between 1866 and 1860, all relating to a series of studies made from a favourite model known as "Long Mary".
This painting is a much larger variant of the original study Watts exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1866. Thetis was seen to mark a radical departure from the luxurious and fleshy nudes associated with Etty and which Watts himself had painted in the 1840s. Despite the titular reference to the Nereid of Homer's Iliad, there is no emphasis on character or narrative situation. Homer had humanised Thetis as the protective mother of Achilles, but Watts depicts her as a slender pubescent girl with small hips and breasts. The treatment of the form is general and typical and, in keeping with the philosophy Watts later espoused that "indecency clings to the idea of the individual", there is no suggestion of a particular model (Watts 1912). The figure is classical in terms of pose and proportion (there are eight heads to the body), and the hair is confined to the head, apart from a raised lock that serves to accentuate the elongation of the composition. The dry, fresco- like paint surface further functions to suppress ) any connotation of sexuality.