ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the tension in the G. F. Watts's lives between the two competing visions or 'myths': the supportive wife and the independent creative woman. Watts's relationships with women were much more ambiguous, as Mary's achievements indicate. The women who wrote about him in his later years were only the last in a long line of female supporters and admirers. The most influential of Watts's female admirers, the novelist and energetic cultural networker Mrs Emilie Barrington, constantly emphasised the intimacy between Watts and herself. Watts's interest in modern dress almost certainly developed during the time he lived with the large Prinsep family at Little Holland House in London. Watts's persona as 'Signor' is crucial in understanding the central paradox about these activities. In 1889 Briton Riviere persuaded Watts to prepare a paper for the Edinburgh Art Congress. The activities of the Kyrle Society conflicted to some extent with those of another charitable society, the Home Arts and Industries Association.
