Photograph of George Watts, half-length, three-quarters right, with receding hair, moustache and beard. Signed on mount by Watts.

George Frederic Watts (1817-1904) was during the nineteenth century regarded as one of England’s greatest artists. Watts encouraged and supported Cameron with her photographic endeavours. He sat several times for Cameron, both as himself and in the allegorical work Whisper of the Muse (April 1865), which was part of the first group of Cameron photographs purchased by Queen Victoria.

Text adapted from Roger Fenton – Julia Margaret Cameron: Early British photographs from the Royal Collection, London, 2010