George Fiddes Watt

Not to be confused with George Frederic Watts.

George Fiddes Watt (15 February 1873 – 22 November 1960) was a Scottish portrait painter and engraver.

George Fiddes Watt
Born	(1873-02-15)15 February 1873 Aberdeen
Died	22 November 1960(1960-11-22) (aged 87) Aberdeen
Nationality	Scottish
Education	Gray's School of Art Royal Scottish Academy
Known for	Portrait painting, engraving
Notable work	H. H. Asquith, A. J. Balfour...
Elected	Royal Society of Arts

Biography

Watt studied art at Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen and the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.^[1] He was elected to the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in 1924 and received an honorary LL.D. degree from the University of Aberdeen in 1955.^[1][2]

Watt was sculpted by Henry Snell Gamley in 1912, Watt's son Albert having been sculpted by Gamley four years previously.^[3] A bronze statue of Watt by Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones, made in 1942, is in Aberdeen.^[4]

Works

Watt's large output includes paintings of many famous people of his time in Britain.^[2] An exception among the many portraits is a landscape, J. P. Inverarity Mauled by a Lioness, Somaliland .^[5]

Portraits

Lawyers

• Viscount Haldane (Lincoln's Inn)^[1]
• Viscount Reading (Middle Temple)^[1]
• Alexander Low, Lord Low (The Laws) ^[6]

Divines

• William Paterson Paterson

Scientists

• Sir J. J. Thomson (Royal Society)^[1]

Politicians

• H. H. Asquith^[2]
• A. J. Balfour (National Portrait Gallery)^[2][7]
• Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon^[8]
• Sir William Slater Brown, Lord Provost of Edinburgh^[9]

Academics

• Thomas Martin Lindsay^[10]

Mezzotint engravings

• Robert Bannatyne Finlay (Royal Courts of Justice)^[11]

Collections and exhibitions

Watt's work was exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1906 to 1930. His portrait of his mother is in the Tate Gallery's collection.^[1]

Family

His third son, Alexander Stuart Watt (1909–1967) was a journalist based in Paris. Alastair Fiddes Watt (b. 1954) is also a landscape painter.^[2]