‘The Up-springing Stem of the Neck’ in G. F. Watts’s Paintings

Abstract

The neck was used by G. F. Watts as an autonomous limb in which he encapsulated his ideals of beauty. This article demonstrates how Watts’s artistic fetish for the neck was a reflection of Victorian ideals, whilst simultaneously projecting his message about beauty. The article considers the spheres of influence that contributed to Watts’s admiration, then how he used the neck in practice: as a tool for expression and focal point for the body-centred composition. The neck became an intermedial conduit across mediums which enabled Watts to disperse his standard of beauty through a single body part.