Queer Saint : The Cultured Life of Peter Watson

by Adrian Clark, Jeremy Dronfield

Was Peter Watson murdered in his bath by a jealous boyfriend in 1956 ? Murder or suicide, the art world lost one of its wealthiest, most influential patrons. This attractive man, adored by Cecil Beaton; a man who was called a legend by contemporaries, who was the subject of two scandalous novels, and who helped launch the careers of Francis Bacon, John Craxton and Lucian Freud, fell victim to a fortune-hungry lover.

Elegant and hungrily sexual, Peter Watson had a taste for edgy boyfriends. He was the unrequited love of Cecil Beaton’s life – his ‘queer saint’ – but Peter preferred the risk of less sophisticated lovers, including the beautiful, volatile, drug-addicted prostitute Denham Fouts. Peter’s thirst for adventure took him through the cabaret culture of 1930s Berlin, the demi-monde and aristocratic salons of pre-war Paris, English high society, and the glitz of Hollywood’s golden age.

Gore Vidal described him as ‘a charming man, tall, thin, perverse. One of those intricate English queer types who usually end up as field marshals, but because he was so rich he never had to do anything.’ Truman Capote called him ‘not just another rich queen, but – in a stooped, intellectual, bitter-lipped style – one of the most personable men in England’.

More than just a gay playboy, Peter Watson was a renowned connoisseur, and fuelled the engine of mid-twentieth century art with his enormous wealth. Without his patronage, Bacon and Freud might have failed before they’d got started. He also founded the influential British arts journal Horizon with Cyril Connolly and Stephen Spender, and was one of the core founders of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and organised most of its early exhibitions.

From the mystery of his obscure family origins to the enigma surrounding his premature death, this book follows Peter Watson through an odyssey of the mid twentieth century, from high society to sweaty underworld, and discovers a man tormented by depression and doubt; he ultimately wanted love and a sense of self-worth but instead found angst and a squalid death.

‘PETER WATSON (1908–1956), LONG FORGOTTEN AS AN ASTUTE GREY EMINENCE IN THE ART WORLD OF HIS DAY, DISCERNING COLLECTOR OF PAINTINGS, PATRON OF THE YOUNG AND PROMISING, FOUNDER AND BENEFACTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS, IS AT LAST AND DESERVEDLY THE SUBJECT OF A SCRUPULOUS AND COMPELLING INVESTIGATION’ - BRIAN SEWELL

‘THIS COMPELLING REDISCOVERY OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER WATSON CASTS NEW LIGHT ON THE INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC WORLD OF MID-TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN: THE WORLD OF BACON AND FREUD, CYRIL CONNOLLY AND STEPHEN SPENDER’ - LOYD GROSSMAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE HERITAGE ALLIANCE

Genres: Nonfiction, Queer

471 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 2, 2015

About the author

Adrian Clark is an art commentator and historian with a deep interest in British and Irish artists of the mid-20th century. Originally a collector, he soon turned to writing and research, contributing extensively to The British Art Journal and authoring several books. A City lawyer by profession and historian by training, he brings a disciplined, analytical approach to his work. Educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, his lifelong fascination with history was shaped by influential thinkers like Maurice Cowling. Clark’s writing aims to uncover the complex realities behind artistic and historical narratives, always questioning the assumptions that shape how we interpret the past.

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

'Anyone who’s read anything about mid-century British culture will have come across the name Peter Watson. His name appears in various painting provenances and literary biographies of the period...The roll call of Watson’s acquaintances is a dazzling roster of luminaries; Picasso, Bacon, Camus, Dalí, Orwell, Capote, Giacometti and Visconti...(as well as) collectors and sponsors of avant-garde art along with... aristocrats and rent boys.'

That comes from a laudatory review in the Independent newspaper in the UK and almost all the reviews I have read in the press from 2015 were bizarrely full of praise for this book as if this was the story of an unrecognised or unacknowledged UK Diaghilev, but of the plastic arts rather than dance. But the reviewer above unwittingly blows a hole through the whole farcical charade of Peter Watson's so-called importance when he refers to him being the 'acquaintance' of so many artists. Diaghilev was not simply an acquaintance of Benois, Sert, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Picasso amongst many others. He was both the 'impresario' collaborator in an artistic inferno - creating and changing the way the world of music and dance profoundly and forever. He didn't do this because he had money, Diaghilev had no money of his own and he spent a lot of time and effort getting those with money to support his endeavours. If they had an interest in the art it helped. Who today cares who any of those patrons were? They are there in the biographies of Diaghilev and the musicians, artists and dancers he helped make famous but they are of less importance than, for example, the men and/or women who made ballet slippers for Pavlova or Nijinsky. They made the art of Pavlova and Nijinsky happen the others just paid for it.

Peter Watson had a great deal of money from a very early age and, having a passion for boys he spent time in Wiemar Germany with Isherwood and in London with Cecil Beaton. He bought a lot of pictures, supported artists and institutions like the ICA and Cyril Connolly's 'Horizon' magazine. But he was never an impresario, never mind a collaborator, with anyone. Writing cheques does not write you a place in history, you are at most a footnote in the memoirs, histories and biographies of those who matter. That is what Peter Watson is. He has left nothing behind, not a collection of pictures, an arts endowment, no letters or diaries, only the memory of a man lucky enough to buy his way into the company of people who mattered. Artists need rich people to provide money so they can make art in the same way they need food to eat and toilets to shit in and those who provide the money are far less important than the men and/or women they fall in love with, obsess over, have sex with and probably mistreat or are mistreated by.

This is a biography of a nullity who hasn't even left a paper trail. If he hadn't been gay (or more accurately queer with a taste for rough trade) he wouldn't get a biography because he wouldn't have been mentioned by the numerous queer writers of his acquaintance so there would have been no anecdotes to fill in the blanks left by the absence of letters, diaries, etc. and because there is a market for it now. If these largely peripheral characters are to get biographies I would have thought it was time for a proper new biography of someone like Brian Howard (Who was he you may well ask? If I told you he was the gay associate of gay Harold Acton, another person who has yet to attract a biographer, I am sure you would again say 'Who is he?' Both Howard and Acton were as important as Wilson and their accomplishments were equally ephemeral. Which proves what I had to say about Wilson).

Perhaps the closest Peter Watson came to 'involvement' with a 'legend' was his support of Dennis Fouts (look him up). But when the Fouts legend was told (by everyone from Isherwood to Vidal and Capote) he was always excised and replaced by fictitious Greek Royals and sundry other nonentities. Rather ironic, a nonentity being replaced in 'history' by even greater nonentities.

This biography is a waste of anyone's reading time - go back and read Isherwood if you want tales of Berlin Boys or Beaton's diaries if you want to hear reams of social gossip about forgettable people but don't waste your time on this cut and paste job of anecdotes about a nobody from more interesting people.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another biography filled with familiar names. The bibliography at the end, I highlighted all the books and biographies I had already read and wrote down those few I was tempted to buy to read. A short mention of Edith Olivier and I find that I have read two books on her and there is one I missed. I read Stephen Tennant's biography which led me to all of the books by and about Cecil Beaton and Peter Watson was the love of Beaton's life. I do relish reading of the English intellectual, political, sexual and aristocratic lives. It is all so incestuous and connected. Everyone knew everyone and their biographies have the same names, places, words, phrases, quotes and history. Bits and bobs of information that have me pulling a book from my shelves or googling potted biographies which may have me searching for a copy to buy. For example: when I read Nick Haslam's biography I googled his house The Hunting Lodge with its history and photos and YouTube video which led me to Knole childhood home of Vita Sackville-West and all her husband Harold Nicolson's diaries and then to Sissinghurst and its great gardens and Chatsworth and the books of Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire which led to a ton of books on and by the Mitford sisters. Deborah's biography Wait For Me was dedicated to Bunny Garnett whose life and books I had read as part of my obsession with Bloomsbury and Virginia Woolf....and John Lehmann was publisher of Gore Vidal (whose biography I am also currently reading) but started his career working for Virginia Woolf at Hogarth Press. It is like following bread crumbs..there is always another trail through the woods. It was musical chairs and beds.

[David Corvine · Rating 4 out of 5]

" My dear Agnes you want an object in life. Art alone isn't enough. Grub Street is so very grimy, and good works are out of date." from A Study In Temperament by Ronald Firbank.
Interesting if you are interested in the Brideshead generation and the art world of that era. Written in a not overly taxing journalistic style.
Peter Ward came into a very substantial trust fund when he was twenty one. Not burdened with a country estate or a family, he was free to spend, spend, spend.... on collecting art and funding artists. Did some useful work establishing the ICA and bankrolled the short lived literary magazine Horizon. Apart from that he doled out cash to various hangers-on and professional leeches like Denny Fouts and Gerald Hamilton. Not quite sure how this makes him a saint.
The conspiracy theory surrounding his death and possible links to the security services don't seem to have any basis in fact.

[Merit · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well researched and intriguing biography of a figure I had never heard of before. Peter Watson emerged in the dying days of 1920s hedonism into the cultured and sophisticated yet doomed world of the 1930s. He was the friend of Cecil Beaton (who fell desperately in love with him) and the Mitfords, and a host of other well known or notable at the times figures. He was fairly openly gay (for the times, of course) and became a well know collector patron of the arts including Lucien Freud. And then, tragically, he was found dead in mysterious circumstances. A figure that intersected eras and scenes, class and sexuality, remaining somewhat elusive to the end.

[Christian Peltenburg-brechneff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Photographs are very missed. I wished we had some images.
Otherwise I liked this book a lot. Particularely after reading George Platt Lynes and Queer St.iIves stories. Also Fire Island connects to that world.

[James Swan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling, captivating and completely revealing of an influential life (and death) otherwise forgotten by time.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Queer Saint” is the latest in my binge reading about the British art scene from WWI to the ’60s. Peter Watson left an indelible, mark on the British art world and one wonders what more might have been nurtured, had he not died so prematurely. Watson was a gay playboy with a taste for the demi-monde and an aesthete in the purest sense of the word. His patronage in the art world included names such as Francis Bacon, John Craxton, and Lucian Freud, Stephen Spender and Cyril Connolly. He was also the money behind ‘Horizon’, a literary-cultural magazine whose contributor list included Christopher Isherwood, WH Auden, George Orwell, Graham Greene, Bertrand Russell, and Virginia Woolf. It is unfathomable to me that his name is so little known and his influence on British art so unacknowledged.

[Kabir · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting biography though the authors never quite justify their claim that Peter Watson "shook high society". Watson was associated with some famous artists and writers and was known as an art collector but he was not particularly significant in his own right. There is some drama about him possibly being murdered but that doesn't come to much. Still an interesting portrayal of homosexuality in the UK between WWI and WWII.

[Gareth Schweitzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A treasure trove!