Aurora

In Roman mythology Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, would travel across the sky to announce the daily arrival of the sun. Watts sought to represent this subject for many years. Working both in paint and plaster, he never felt that he had fully succeeded.

The strong and androgynous body recalls the work of the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo. For Watts, this muscular figure was intended to suggest ‘the fearless strength of the sun’s rays dispersing all darkness and gloom’. A later version of the subject, said to have been daringly geometric in form, was later destroyed by the artist.