PARIS.- Christie’s will offer two impressive works at the auction of Victorian and Traditionalist Art on 5 June 2008 in London; Jasmine by Albert Joseph Moore (estimate: £600,000-800,000) and The Triumph of Love, a painting on 4 canvases framed as one by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (estimate: £400,000-600,000). Both works are offered from the non-core collection of Watts Gallery, Surrey, in order to raise money for the collection endowment fund at the Gallery to safeguard the future of its core collection.

Jasmine by Albert Joseph Moore (1841-1893) is the most impressive of three known portraits of the central figure of the artist’s masterpiece Dreamers, which was exhibited at The Royal Academy in 1880 and is now in Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. The artist took three years to complete Dreamers, and the income received from the sale of the three portraits sustained and enabled him to complete the work. Moore was influenced by Classicism and became one of the leading figures of the Aesthetic movement, as illustrated by the present work which shows a great sensitivity towards colour and detail. Expected to realise between £600,000 and £800,000, the painting could establish a record price for the artist at auction. (The current record was established at Christie’s London in February 2003 when Lightning and Light, which was offered from The Forbes Collection of Victorian Pictures and Works of Art, sold for £468,650).

The Triumph of Love is a painting on 4 canvases framed as one by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones Bart, ARA, RWS (1833-1898). Thought to be the only existing portion of the artist’s Troy Triptych, an ambitious project that was conceived in 1870 but never completed, it is expected to realise between £400,000 and £600,000. The panels show four allegorical groups representing Fortune with her wheel, Fame overthrowing Fortune, Oblivion conquering Fame, and Love subduing Oblivion. A study for the Troy Triptych in Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery suggest that the present 4 works were to have been situated below the pilasters and Corinthian columns which would have separated each of the Triptych’s panels.

Watts Gallery in Compton was first opened to the public on 1 April 1904. Its aim was to be a gallery devoted to the art of G F Watts, a permanent exhibition of his art for whoever wished to see it, enshrining the vision of art for all. The collection consists of paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture that were owned by Watts, all works allocated by him for the nation.

Watts Gallery is unique in being the only purpose-built art gallery to show a single professional artist’s collection. It is an early example of an Arts & Crafts building and one of the first to be built in solid concrete. It is listed Grade II and was built not only as a Gallery but also to serve as a hostel for apprentice potters working at the pottery founded by Mary Seton Watts. The nearby cemetery chapel which is an extraordinary, art nouveau, Grade I listed building, designed by Mary Watts, together with the pottery buildings and the Gallery, create for visitors an unparalleled insight into the late Victorian era and an exceptionally strong sense of place.

In his own lifetime George Frederic Watts (1817-1904) was widely considered to be the greatest painter of the Victorian age, enjoying an unparalleled reputation. His ceaseless experimentation embodied the most pressing themes and ideas of the time. A complex figure, Watts was the finest and most penetrating portraitist of his age, a sculptor, landscape painter and symbolist which earned him the title ‘England’s Michelangelo.’