Hope sitting on a globe, with bandaged eyes playing on a lyre which has all the strings broken but one out of which poor little tinkle she is trying to get all the music possible, listening with all her might to the little sound—do you like the idea?

— George Frederic Watts in a letter to his friend Madeline Wyndham, December 1885
Hope shows its central character alone, with no other human figures visible and without her traditional fellow virtues, Love (also known as Charity) and Faith.
She is dressed in classical costume, based on the Elgin Marbles; Nicholas Tromans of Kingston University speculated that her Greek style of clothing was intentionally chosen to evoke the ambivalent nature of hope in Greek mythology over the certainties of Christian tradition.
Her pose is based on that of Michelangelo's Night, in an intentionally strained position.
She sits on a small, imperfect orange globe with wisps of cloud around its circumference, against an almost blank mottled blue background.
The figure is illuminated faintly from behind, as if by starlight, and also directly from the front as if the observer is the source of light.
Watts's use of light and tone avoids the clear definition of shapes, creating a shimmering and dissolving effect more typically associated with pastel work than with oil painting.

The design bears close similarities to Burne-Jones's Luna (painted in watercolour 1870 and in oils c. 1872–1875), which also shows a female figure in classical drapery on a globe surrounded by clouds.
As with many of Watts's works the style of the painting was rooted in the European Symbolist movement, but also drew heavily on the Venetian school of painting.
Other works which have been suggested as possible influences on Hope include Burne-Jones's The Wheel of Fortune (c. 1870), Albert Moore's Beads (1875), Dante Gabriel Rossetti's A Sea–Spell (1877), and The Throne of Saturn by Elihu Vedder (1884).

Hope is closely related to Idle Child of Fancy, completed by Watts in 1885, which also shows a personification of one of the traditional virtues (in this case Love) sitting on a cloud-shrouded globe.
In traditional depictions of the virtues, Love was shown blindfolded while Hope was not; in Hope and Idle Child Watts reversed this imagery, depicting Love looking straight ahead and Hope as blind.
It is believed to be the first time a European artist depicted Hope as blind.

The figure of Hope holds a broken lyre, based on an ancient Athenian wood and tortoiseshell lyre then on display in the British Museum.
Although broken musical instruments were a frequently occurring motif in European art, they had never previously been associated with Hope.
Hope's lyre has only a single string remaining, on which she attempts to play.
She strains to listen to the sound of the single unbroken string, symbolising both persistence and fragility, and the closeness of hope and despair.
Watts had recently shown interest in the idea of a continuity between the visual arts and music, and had previously made use of musical instruments as a way to invigorate the subjects of his portraits.

Above the central figure shines a single small star at the very top of the picture, serving as a symbol of further hope beyond that of the central figure herself.
The distance of the star from the central figure, and the fact that it is outside her field of vision even were she not blindfolded, suggests an ambiguity.
It provides an uplifting message to the viewer that things are not as bad for the central character as she believes, and introduces a further element of pathos in that she is unaware of hope existing elsewhere.
Hope sitting on a globe, with bandaged eyes playing on a lyre which has all the strings broken but one out of which poor little tinkle she is trying to get all the music possible, listening with all her might to the little sound—do you like the idea?
— George Frederic Watts in a letter to his friend Madeline Wyndham, December 1885
Hope shows its central character alone, with no other human figures visible and without her traditional fellow virtues, Love (also known as Charity) and Faith. She is dressed in classical costume, based on the Elgin Marbles; Nicholas Tromans of Kingston University speculated that her Greek style of clothing was intentionally chosen to evoke the ambivalent nature of hope in Greek mythology over the certainties of Christian tradition. Her pose is based on that of Michelangelo's Night, in an intentionally strained position. She sits on a small, imperfect orange globe with wisps of cloud around its circumference, against an almost blank mottled blue background. The figure is illuminated faintly from behind, as if by starlight, and also directly from the front as if the observer is the source of light. Watts's use of light and tone avoids the clear definition of shapes, creating a shimmering and dissolving effect more typically associated with pastel work than with oil painting.
The design bears close similarities to Burne-Jones's Luna (painted in watercolour 1870 and in oils c. 1872–1875), which also shows a female figure in classical drapery on a globe surrounded by clouds. As with many of Watts's works the style of the painting was rooted in the European Symbolist movement, but also drew heavily on the Venetian school of painting. Other works which have been suggested as possible influences on Hope include Burne-Jones's The Wheel of Fortune (c. 1870), Albert Moore's Beads (1875), Dante Gabriel Rossetti's A Sea–Spell (1877), and The Throne of Saturn by Elihu Vedder (1884).
Hope is closely related to Idle Child of Fancy, completed by Watts in 1885, which also shows a personification of one of the traditional virtues (in this case Love) sitting on a cloud-shrouded globe. In traditional depictions of the virtues, Love was shown blindfolded while Hope was not; in Hope and Idle Child Watts reversed this imagery, depicting Love looking straight ahead and Hope as blind. It is believed to be the first time a European artist depicted Hope as blind.
The figure of Hope holds a broken lyre, based on an ancient Athenian wood and tortoiseshell lyre then on display in the British Museum. Although broken musical instruments were a frequently occurring motif in European art, they had never previously been associated with Hope. Hope's lyre has only a single string remaining, on which she attempts to play. She strains to listen to the sound of the single unbroken string, symbolising both persistence and fragility, and the closeness of hope and despair. Watts had recently shown interest in the idea of a continuity between the visual arts and music, and had previously made use of musical instruments as a way to invigorate the subjects of his portraits.
Above the central figure shines a single small star at the very top of the picture, serving as a symbol of further hope beyond that of the central figure herself. The distance of the star from the central figure, and the fact that it is outside her field of vision even were she not blindfolded, suggests an ambiguity. It provides an uplifting message to the viewer that things are not as bad for the central character as she believes, and introduces a further element of pathos in that she is unaware of hope existing elsewhere.
Hope (painting)