Summary
This is one Watts' most obviously Symbolist works. One of a group of mysterious winged figures which the artist produced during the mid to late 1880s, the painting develops the ideas expressed in the Dweller in the Innermost (c.1885-6, Tate N01631) and relates closely in design to The Recording Angel of c.1890 (London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham). According to his wife, Watts was given the idea for 'The All Pervading' while observing the play of light on the glass drops of an elaborate chandelier in the drawing room he used as his studio when staying at Sliema on Malta. This experience evidently inspired the green globe or crystal ball with its dots and trails of light like shooting stars. Watts was fascinated by astronomy and the mysteries of the universe, and was a friend of the astronomer Sir John Herschel. He was also interested in spiritualism and was elected to the Society for Psychical Research in 1884… (read more)
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