"Love, that in gentle heart is quickly learnt,
Entangled him by that fair form...;
Love, that denial takes from none beloved,
Caught me with pleasing him so passing well,
That as thou seest, he yet deserts me not.
Love brought us to one death."

Watts has admirably caught the sweetness and sorrow of this situation in
his beautiful picture, which, again, is one of the very few he
considered finally "finished." It is almost a monochrome of blues and
greys.

In "Time and Oblivion," one of the earliest of the symbolical paintings,
Time is again the stalwart man of imperishable youth, while Oblivion,
another form of Death, spreads her mantle of darkness over all, claiming
all.

_Landscapes_.--Although Watts will ever be remembered for his
allegorical, biblical, and portrait painting, yet he was by no means
deficient in landscape art. Indeed, he carried into that branch of work
his peculiar personality. Not only do his landscapes depict beautiful
scenery in a fitting manner, joining atmosphere, sunshine, and colour,
but they convey in an extraordinary degree the mood of Nature and of
Man. "The Sphinx by Night" has an air of mystery about it that
immediately impresses the spectator, and tells him something that cannot
be communicated by words. The Italian and the Asiatic canvases by Watts,
"Florence," "Fiesole," "Correna," "Cos," and "Asia Minor," all induce
the feeling of repose and happiness, and the message that Nature sends
to her devotees comes sweetly and calmly in "The Rainbow," where we look