Wednesday, November 7, 2012

The marriage of Ellen Terry and G F Watts



The marriage of Ellen Terry and G F Watts was not a success but what I hadn't heard before was Watts’ surrounded his “child-wife” with a little court of his middle aged female friends, who subjected Terry to humiliating surveillance and made sure she did not to open her mouth in front of Watts’ distinguished guests. 

After ten months of marriage, she ran away with a progressive architect, Edward Godwin. She left a note containing only two words, “Found Drowned”, attached to a photograph of Watts. The reference is to a painting by Watts, which, as Terry said, depicted “the wreck of a young girl’s life”.

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