Watts (1817-1904‪)‬

In 1843, George Frederick Watts beat the celebrated painter Haydon and his rivals with a picture of a captive British king—and won £300 for it.

In Victorian England, Watts wanted painting to do more than adorn walls: it could preserve history, instruct the public and give meaning to the nation’s buildings. William Loftus Hare’s biography follows the artist from that early triumph to Italy, where the work of old masters sharpened his ambitions, and back to a country that had yet to make room for the monumental art he believed it needed. Independent and often a guest among influential friends, Watts pursued a vision that reached beyond portraiture to love, death and the duties of society. Could one painter persuade a nation to see art as more than decoration?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.