Watt's First Experiment, from "The Art Journal," opp. p. 140
Engraver Herbert Bourne British
After Marcus Clayton Stone British
Subject James Watt Scottish
Not on view
This work imagines the origins of James Watt's fascination with the power of steam—as an adult he became famous for perfecting the steam engine. As a boy, Watt sits with his mother and father at table, pressing a spoon against the spout of a boiling kettle. As the eldest child of Agnes Muirhead and James Watt, a shipwright, shipowner and contractor, Watt first education came at home from his mother, after which he entered the Greenock Grammar School. At the start of his career, he worked for his father and developed engineering models, an ability hinted at by the hammer and box lying on the floor here in the foreground. At this time, Stone's related painting belonged to the publisher George Virtue (1794–1868) who lived at Oatlands Park,near Weybridge, Surrey.
