ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that in the 1840s G. F. Watts associated the painting of 'ideas' with a desire to contribute to a national school of art, one in which he imagined occupying a central role. If new developments in art mirrored innovations in mass media technologies, both created a difficult climate for a painter, like Watts, who was pledged to preserving the public nature of painting. By the late 1840s Watts was arguing that the history painter should avoid becoming embroiled in displays of party politics. By 1847 Watts had resolved to draw inspiration from Italian art with an enthusiasm he had previously reserved for the work of Flaxman and Pheidias. In Lawgivers Watts included figures of legislators and philosophers from a range of historical periods in a manner that dissolved any chronological framework and hinted at the fluidity of history.
