The artist would have been about 36 when he created this imposing image of himself. Watts painted and drew himself regularly throughout his long life, but this portrait is unusually large and ambitious. Wearing a long red robe, Watts looks more like a figure from the Renaissance than a Victorian, and photographs of the artist from this period confirm that he really did adopt such unconventional clothing.* Watts was later to become a vocal supporter of dress reform for both men and women. The robe has been compared to those worn by distinguished Venetians during the Renaissance, such as senators and lawyers. Very probably the portrait was related to the enormous fresco at Lincoln's Inn (a college of lawyers) which Watts had begun in the early 1850s. This represented an imagined gathering of the great legal reformers of world history, with several of the artist's famous friends including Alfred Tennyson and William Holman Hunt sitting as models for these figures. It seems likely these historicised portraits encouraged Watts to paint himself in a similar fashion. By 1853 Watts had a strong following among influential patrons and intellectuals, but was still a long way from achieving the public prominence for his art which he desired. His guise as a lawyer hints at the higher social status he would have liked to see enjoyed by artists, while the pose – defiant and defensive at the same time – suggests a man confident of his talent and ambition, but perhaps not yet sure he will succeed. The portrait hung for many years outside the rooms in Watts's London homes in which he showed his work to visitors. It was acquired by Watts Gallery Trust in 2014 to show at the entrance to the artist's studio at Limnerslease. [https://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/collections/highlights-permanent-collection/#item-1306] *Much like Klimt. [sh]