Watts Gallery

Watts Gallery stands in the Surrey village of Compton, on an 18-acre site that includes the former home and studio of Victorian painter George Frederic Watts and his artist wife Mary. The gallery building, designed by Christopher Hatton Turnor, was opened in 1904 and is Grade II* listed. It houses over one hundred paintings by G. F. Watts, spanning seventy years of his work. The gallery also displays the original decorative schemes and studio artefacts. Nearby, Watts Mortuary Chapel shows Mary Watts’s Arts & Crafts design. The gallery is one of the few UK museums devoted to a single artist and is often called a national gallery in a village setting. Its collection includes portraits, landscapes and major symbolic works. A long-term exhibition of works by William and Evelyn De Morgan opened after the De Morgan Centre in London closed. The gallery reopened in 2011 after major restoration funded partly by a £4.3 million Heritage Lottery grant. Visitors find the historic galleries with natural top-lighting and the newly restored Limnerslease, the Watts’ former home and studio. The Sculpture Gallery holds monumental works and studio items. The nearby burial ground contains Watts’ grave and the ornate Watts Mortuary Chapel. The Richard Jeffries Gallery displays key works from the De Morgan Collection.