George Frederick Watts

George Frederick Watts was often ill as a child and could not even attend school regularly. From the age of ten he studied sculpture in the studio of the English artist William Behnes (1795–1864) and thoroughly studied the Elgin Marbles exhibited in the British Museum (pictured). Also known as the Parthenon Marbles, the ancient Greek sculptures originally came from the Parthenon and other buildings of the Acropolis in Athens. Watts later said of the Greek sculptures: “…I learned from them alone.”

From the page of Hope