Watts's acquaintance with the Hollands was to change the whole course of his life. Henry Edward Fox, fourth Lord Holland, was the son of the third baron and his clever, eccentric, tiresome wife, who had gathered round her at Holland House an internationally famous circle of statesmen, wits and men of letters. Henry Edward, now just turned forty, had been appointed British Minister in Florence in 1838, and shortly afterwards succeeded to the barony. In 1833, after not a few unsuccessful pursuits and broken engagements, he had married Lady Mary Augusta Coventry, who in moments of intimacy called her husband Buz; she was ten years his junior, only five years older than Watts, and had the tiniest feet in Europe. In a letter written to his mother at the time of his engagement, Henry had described Augusta (as she was always called) as very “petite”, her face very beautiful - especially her eyes, but her figure bad and her way of dressing worse than Cinderella. She doesn't possess a single gown or chiffon of any sort that I do not look forward to burning with great complacency. She was intelligent and well-educated, good-natured and cheerful, and (though one would hardly guess it from her portraits) free from any shadow of affectation. Henry had soon helped her to acquire the necessary sartorial polish, and she now presided successfully over a salon very different from her mother-in-law's, but one to which all visitors to Florence were eager to be invited. One thing only was lacking at the Casa Feroni: some special, some extra-ordinary attraction for the entertainment of her guests; and now a kind Fate had brought this charming and (she was assured) exceptionally talented young artist into her life. He came; she saw; she was conquered. Watts had been invited to stay for several days; she held him a willing captive for several years....' 'In October, even before Watts had moved into the Casa Feroni, Lord Holland had written to his aunt, Caroline Fox, giving her his first impression of Watts: Mr Watts seems to me full of genius and favourable ambition, without any of the jealous, niggling, detracting vanity of his brother artists. I have seen a good deal of him, as he has made a beautiful sketch of Augusta in oil. I wish you would mention and recommend him to Lord Lansdowne. I think he will be a great painter in his day.... He returns very soon to England to prepare for the next exhibition. But Watts stayed on and on, and five months later Lord Holland gave his mother his more considered opinion of his now permanent guest: I am very much interested about Mr Watts. I think he has not only great talent, but real genius. The artists here, who are all good judges and very parsimonious of praise, are wild about him, tho' very angry at having to acknowledge foreign merit. He is, however, terribly dilatory and indolent, and will not buckle to to study fresco painting as he ought. I have worried him into painting portraits, and he has two splendid ones of Jerome Bonaparte and his daughter, Pss Demidoff, besides a full-length one of Mrs Fitzpatrick, which is extremely like, and yet will hand her down to posterity as very beautiful!!! He would not paint portraits at first, as he aims at being more than a mere portrait painter, and indeed he has talent for really fine poetical pictures - but who in this age will order them and pay for them, among the few who have sense to hang them up!!? I like him very much... He is very clever, well read, and wonderfully quick and intelligent; but I fear he has not the energy and qualities to ensure his prosperity in the world.'
Mary Augusta Fox, 4th Baroness Holland (1812-1889) J G Archer
Wilfred Blunt, England's Michelangelo, Hamish Hamilton, London 1975, pages 28-34: Then, one morning, quite by chance, he (G. F. Watts) came upon the General (General Ellice) in the street and was sharply reprimanded. "Why haven't you been to the Casa Feroni?" he asked. "Lord Holland has been expecting you; he's been enquiring for you everywhere". So now he had no choice, and meekly allowed himself to be carried off to the Hollands' house in the via de' Serragli, on the left bank of the Arno not far from the Carmine church. On 3 October he dined there for the first time and made so favorable an impression that Lord Holland, hearing that he was about to leave his present lodgings, suggested that he should stay at the Casa until he had found somewhere that suited him. "We have plenty of room," he said. They had: in the Casa Feroni there were a hundred bedrooms.