Una and the Red Cross Knight
G F WATTS: artist
During his lifetime George Frederic Watts was highly regarded for his portraits and paintings drawn from literature. The subject of this painting is taken from Edmund Spenser’s sixteenth-century epic poem The Faerie Queene, an allegorical work in praise of Elizabeth I. Watts shows an intimate moment between St George and Una rather than the high drama of the story. In so doing the painting becomes a statement on the moral responsibility to place duty above individual feelings. The stable, triangular composition reinforces the message that this is the natural order of things. (August 2018)
Title
Una and the Red Cross Knight
Artist/Maker and role
G F WATTS: artist
Date
1869
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
167.3 x 184.7 cm (framed)
134.6 x 152.4 cm (sight)
134.6 x 152.4 cm (sight)
Credit line
Purchased, 1959
The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia
Accession number
1959/0P10