Peter Watson (arts benefactor)

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Victor William (Peter) Watson (14 September 1908 – 3 May 1956) was a wealthy English art collector and benefactor. He funded the literary magazine, Horizon, edited by Cyril Connolly.

Life and work

Watson was the son of William George Watson, later

disputed – discuss][1] Eton College and St John's College, Oxford.[2]

Watson was an avid art collector acquiring works by such artists as

Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and John Craxton.[3] In 1930, society photographer, artist and set designer Sir Cecil Beaton began a lifelong obsession with Watson, though the two never became lovers. One chapter from Hugo Vickers
' authorized biography of Cecil Beaton is titled "I Love You, Mr. Watson".

In 1940, Watson provided funding for Cyril Connolly's Horizon and became its arts editor.

Daniel Kahnweiler, to comment on the contemporary art market; and he also got Michel Leiris to write about Giacometti.[4] Spender recalled to Connolly's biographer, Clive Fisher, that Watson hated "priggishness, pomposity and almost everything to do with public life," and he suspected that he had educated himself "through a love of beautiful works and of people in whom he saw beauty ...". He added "When I think of him then, I think of his clothes, which were beautiful, his general neatness and cleanness, which seemed almost those of a handsome young Bostonian."[5]

Fisher writes that Peter Watson "was a figure of striking attractiveness; women in particular seem to have found his manners irresistible... almost everyone appears to have liked him." One of Watson's lovers was the American male prostitute and socialite Denham Fouts, whom he continued to support even after they separated as a result of Fouts's drug addiction

Watson was found drowned in his bath on 3 May 1956 at his home in

Knightsbridge, London.[6] Some have suggested that he was murdered by his young American lover, Norman Fowler (11 May 1927– March 23, 1971).[7][8][9] Fowler inherited the bulk of Watson's estate and died 14 years later in the West Indies; he was also found drowned in his bathtub.[8]

Watson's sister,

Alberta, Canada
.

Notes and references

  1. ISBN 978-0-7195-6034-7
    ), p. 17
  2. JSTOR 41615295
  3. ^ "20th Century British and Irish Art; Writings by Art Commentator and Historian Adrian Clark".
  4. ISBN 978-0-9554063-4-8
    .
  5. ^ Clive Fisher, Cyril Connolly: A Nostalgic Life.
  6. ^ "Mr. Peter Watson, Modern Patron Of Art", The Times, no. 53523, p. 10, 5 May 1956
  7. ^ U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014
  8. ^ a b "Norman Fowler and Nevis". 20th Century British and Irish Art Art Commentator and Historian Adrian Clark. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  9. ^ Hugo Vickers, Cecil Beaton, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1985.
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