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

Bequeathed by the artist to his adopted daughter Lilian Chapman and her husband Michael Chapman by whom sold to a private collector

Watts was commissioned around 1865 to design mosaics to fill the four remaining spandrels for the dome of St Paul's cathedral in London to complete a project first begun by Alfred Stevens. Watts was asked to depict the Four Evangelists, Matthew, Luke, Mark and John. The spandrel depicting St Matthew was completed in 1866 and it is for this spandrel that all of the studies in this sketchbook were made. Two oil sketches for the St Matthew spandrel were sold at Sotheby's, Belgravia (21 July 1981, lot 55) and (20 October 1981, lot 52).