George Frederic Watts (1817-1904) is regarded as one of the greatest painters of the Victorian age. He is associated with the circle of artists who settled in London's Holland Park, and later with Limnerslease, the house which he and his wife Mary built in Surrey. It is less well known that Watts spent many winters in the 1870s and the 1880s on England's south coast in the seaside town of Brighton.

This book describes the artist's life and work in Brighton through the pictures which he painted there, the people he met, and the ever-present problems with his health. The record is enriched by Mary's reflections of this time, the daily notes which she made, and by the varied subjects of Watts's letters written from his studios by the sea.