ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with scrutinizing some of the processes that have worked to naturalize G. F. Watts's very personal and idiosyncratic series of portraits as a national Hall of Fame. One of the chief means through which Watts's work has become familiar to later generations is the collection of his Hall of Fame portraits in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG). When the National Gallery of British Art opened in 1897, the question of the direction of the Hall of Fame had already been settled in the NPG'S favour. In the process of being 'nationalized', Watts's paintings were annexed to the NPG'S own mission to illustrate and celebrate British historical life through the display of its public figures. It is possible that the NPG hesitated over the Butler portrait because it did not admire the painting, which is not the most successful of Watts's works.
