Mary and George Watts

Abstract

Chapters 1 and 2 explore the Wattses’ and the De Morgans’ progressive socio-political positions as suffragist artists who actively supported and promoted the women’s suffrage movement that gained momentum over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It shows how they achieved this through their anti-patriarchal conjugal creative partnerships; their professional creative practices; their involvement in suffrage societies and women’s culture; and their works privileging female struggle, power and freedom. Chapter 1 focuses on Mary and George Watts. It explores the feminist dynamics of the couple’s conjugal creative partnership, their professional creative practices, and the ways in which they supported the women’s suffrage movement and women’s liberation more generally. Most notably, Mary Watts convened suffrage meetings at the Wattses’ Surrey studio-home, while George Watts was close friends with – and his art was a source of inspiration for – early feminists.