Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
The Watts Gift
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/george-frederic-watts-586" aria-label="More by George Frederic Watts" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">George Frederic Watts</a>
Sic Transit
Presented by the artist 1897
actions: postures and motions
adults
animals: features
armour
birth to death
body
book - non-specific
clothing and personal items
corpse
curtain
death
emotions, concepts and ideas
ephemerality
feather
figure
fine arts and music
flower
fur / hide
furnishings
goblet
immortality
immortality - peacock feather
inscriptions
instrument, lute
kitchen
lying down
objects
people
plants and flowers
reading, writing, printed matter
religion and belief
religious
religious
religious and ceremonial
robe
shell
shield
shroud
society
spear
symbols and personifications
universal concepts
universal religious imagery
weapons
wreath
<p>The title of this painting comes from the Latin phrase <span>sic transit gloria mundi</span>, which was well known at the time. It means ‘thus passes the glory of the world’. Watts shortened it to reflect that his subject was ‘the end of all human existence’. The objects in front of the shrouded figure symbolise the futility of material wealth. On the left, the ermine fur, used on robes of state, denotes power. The lute and book refer to the Arts; the laurel crown and goblet to fame and luxury; the armour and weaponry to military victory. The inscription reads: ‘What I spent, I had, What I saved, I lost, What I gave, I have.’</p><p><em>Gallery label, June 2021</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
1 March 2011 – 31 December 2011
2011-12-31
1 March 2011 – 31 December 2011
2011-12-31
2011-03-01
Watts Gallery - Artists’ Village (Compton, UK)
http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk
2011-03-01
Watts Gallery Re-Opening
Loan-out
26 May 2021 – 25 September 2022
2022-09-25
26 May 2021 – 25 September 2022
2022-09-25
2021-05-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2021-05-26
Watts’s Symbolical Paintings
Collection based display
Sic Transit
support: 1029 × 2045 mm
Presented by <a href="/search?gid=999999783" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">the artist</a> 1897
<p>'<i>Sic Transit</i>' was among those works that Watts presented to the Nation in 1897 and which are now held at Tate. They were described as 'pictures of thought and ethics, and ... of elementary metaphysics' by a critic of the day (M.H. Spielmann, 'Mr George Frederick Watts, R.A.', <i>Magazine of Art</i>, 1896, p.210). The metaphysical, or the meaning and purpose of human existence, a prevalent theme of Watts's work, is of particular relevance to '<i>Sic Transit</i>'. The title is from the Latin expression <i>sic transit gloria mundi</i>, meaning 'so passes the glory of the world', but Watts declined from using the full expression because, according to Mary Watts: 'His intention in the picture was not so much the passing of the glory of the world but rather the end of all human existence' (Watts, p.197). The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> itself, which is wide and very long in the manner of a frieze, lends the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> a monumental quality befitting the grave nature of the subject. 

</p><p>Prior to execution, the canvas was prepared with <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/plaster-of-paris" title="Glossary definition for 'Plaster of Paris'"></a><a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/plaster-of-paris" title="Glossary definition for 'Plaster of Paris'"><span>plaster</span></a> of Paris, which gave it the rough, <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/fresco" title="Glossary definition for 'Fresco'"><span>fresco</span></a>-like texture upon which Watts liked to paint. Watts's biographer described the painting as having 'in its texture much of the quality of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/pastel" title="Glossary definition for 'Pastel'"><span>pastel</span></a>, with the suggestion of more weight and solemnity' (Mrs Russell Barrington, <i>G.F. Watts: Reminiscences</i>, London 1905, p.164). 

</p><p>A dark-coloured curtain provides the backdrop to the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> and is inscribed in gold along the length of the canvas with an expression alluding to the futility of wealth: 'What I spent | I had, | What I saved, | I lost, | What I gave, | I have'. Watts's treatment of death draws on a number of precedents in art. The critic Richard Dorment has compared the recumbent, shrouded figure in '<i>Sic Transit</i>' with the representation in tomb <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculpture</span></a> of the '<i>transi</i>'; 'the shrouded or decomposing corpse stripped of all signs of earthly gain or glory' (Dorment, p.48). Watts engages also with the <i><a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/memento-mori" title="Glossary definition for 'Memento Mori'"><span>vanitas</span></a></i> theme in his depiction of a number of worldly attributes that are left behind in death. The ermine, alluding to the robes of state, denotes wealth and power; the lute and book refer to the Arts; the laurel crown and goblet to fame and high living and the armour, spear and gauntlet to victory in war.  

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone (eds), <i>The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones &amp; Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.269-70, no.126, reproduced p.269 in colour.<br/>Richard Dorment, Richard Ormond, Allen Staley et al, <i>Victorian High Renaissance</i>, exhibition catalogue, Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester 1978, pp.48-9, reproduced p.49, figure 24.<br/>M.S. Watts, <i>George Frederic Watts: The Annals of an Artist's Life</i>, London 1912, II, pp.189-90, 197-200.

</p><p>Rebecca Virag<br/>May 2001</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>The title of this painting comes from the Latin phrase <i>sic transit gloria mundi</i>, which was well known at the time. It means ‘thus passes the glory of the world’. Watts shortened it to reflect that his subject was ‘the end of all human existence’. The objects in front of the shrouded figure symbolise the futility of material wealth. On the left, the ermine fur, used on robes of state, denotes power. The lute and book refer to the Arts; the laurel crown and goblet to fame and luxury; the armour and weaponry to military victory. The inscription reads: ‘What I spent, I had, What I saved, I lost, What I gave, I have.’</p>
</div>

Display caption
2021-06-07T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults animals: features armour birth to death body book - non-specific clothing and personal items corpse curtain death emotions, concepts and ideas ephemerality feather figure fine arts and music flower fur / hide furnishings goblet immortality immortality - peacock feather inscriptions instrument, lute kitchen lying down objects people plants and flowers reading, writing, printed matter religion and belief religious religious religious and ceremonial robe shell shield shroud society spear symbols and personifications universal concepts universal religious imagery weapons wreath