George Frederic Watts, O.M., R.A.

Julian Hartnoll, London;
Private collection;
Sotheby's, 19 June 2002, lot 103;
Private collection

The canvas has an old lining. An area of paint loss near the upper left corner and another spot in the upper right. Further frame abrasion and small paint loss near centre of right edge. There is a craquelure pattern mainly to the figure on the right. Ultraviolet light reveals scattered flecks of retouching throughout the composition and a more consolidated area to the right hand figure's breasts. Held in a Watts style gilt composite frame.
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Throughout its exhibition history the more finished version of this picture (Faringdon Collection, Buscot Park, Oxfordshire) has been known by various titles. When first exhibited in 1876 it was called The Three Graces but in Watts' latter years it had become known as The Judgement of Paris. The three naked figures have none of the traditional attributes associated with Juno, Athena and Venus who competed against one another in the contest judged by the shepherd Paris on Mount Ida. In this show of the Goddesses' attributes, Venus was the eventual winner when she stripped herself of clothing to reveal her unrivalled beauty but in Watts' painting all three figures are naked. The original title is therefore perhaps most satisfactory although the painting can also be regarded as a subject-less celebration of Watts' favourite model 'Long Mary' as a writer suggested in 1887; 'He is the only painter of the English school who has treated the female nude simply from the point of view of style, and with no other object than to realise its purely plastic beauty. His mythological works, entitled 'The Three Goddesses,' only aims at showing simultaneously the front, back and profile of a woman.' (E. Chesneau, The English School of Painting, 1887, p.265)