G.F. Watts "The Suffering of the Poor" Quartet Pt II

Another poignant image, the Semstress, the Song of the Shirt, it's based on what everyone knew happened, that these poor women literally worked themselves to death sewing up ready-made shirts. They were sent cut-out pieces of shirts in bales which they then sewed together for sums like tuppence a dozen. And they worked themselves to death in freezing attics like this and stinking damp cellars so that gentlemen might wear crisp white linen shirts. And it's also combined with Thomas Hood's famous poem, the Song of the Shirt, which was published at about the same time as this quartet of pictures was painted. Unfortunately the picture has deteriorated very badly because it was damaged badly in Watts' lifetime and his endeavours to repair it damaged it even further and a lot of the detail is unfortunately lost. But originally the shattered window panes were stuffed with rags and her work basket has tumbled onto the floor and the contents spewed out and she hasn't the energy to bend down and pick it up. And the famous and popular device of symbolist painting, you can see the candle is just about to go out and so is she. This picture had the rare distinction of being reviewed by no less than Thackeray and he said of it, poor, poor creature, her only companion in all the world a little grey mouse. It's the English and their animals bit, you see. It flows through the entire period of history and Watts was so furious at Thackeray trivialising this subject that he painted the mouse out. But the strange thing is that with the passing of time the mouse is very slowly reappearing. It's just possible to see its dear little face and its sweet little tail and its little ears poking up there. So it makes you wonder slightly about pictures in general. They seem to have a life of their own and perhaps all that stuff about Dorian Gray isn't as fanciful after all. Without doubt on the aspect of sheer size the Irish Famine is the most impressive of the quartet and its impressiveness comes because unusually for 19th century painters Watts does not treat the Irish as a comic subject. Look for a moment at the desperation and defiance in the man, the bitter resignation of the old mother and is the child dying, is it already dead? Of course it's a variation on the theme of the Holy Family. There are only so many permutations in the universe and when Watts' friend the Irish poet Aubrey de Vere saw this in his London studio he said to Watts, my God you must have second sight to know what it's like but you must come to Ireland and see for yourself. And Watts did and he was even more appalled when he saw the bitter reality of it. He'd of course known what was going on from the reports in the newspapers and it was from those that he painted the picture but he was acutely intuitive I think to have got such feeling and I suppose you could almost say subdued passion into such a subject. It's not a pleasant subject, none of them were intended to be and in fact somebody when they had a party of school children they'd been doing some work, it was two or three years ago the 150th anniversary of the Potato Family and they'd been doing a little work about it and one of them asked was it really awful and I said go and look at the face of the man in the picture.