George Watts was English born in 1817, and as a boy he was first introduced to classical Greek sculpture. Watts attended the Royal Academy schools sporadically between 1835 and 1837 and besides this sparse education he was self-taught. After winning his first prize in 1843 for a cartoon, he took the prize money and traveled to Italy where he was an avid student of fresco (painting by applying pigments directly into wet plaster) and monumental painting, interests he drew on later in his career. However his inefficiencies in fresco technical grounding prevented him from reviving the art in England.

After returning home he established a solid reputation in intellectual circles and was elected both Associate and full member of the Royal Academy in 1867.
Watts' style was influenced by the Venetian masters as well as Michelangelo. Although his art does resemble that of the then contemporary Pre-Raphaelites and the Impressionists, their techniques did not interest him.

Watts first won notice for his portraits, but in his later years he evolved a type ambiguous moral allegory on a vast scale, like "Hope", which became his best known work.