An artist who was closely allied to the Pre-Raphaelites was the painter and sculptor G.F Watts. In addition to immortalising the facial hair of his friends William Morris, Frederic Leighton, Algernon Swinburne and others, Watts himself grew a superb set of whiskers, moustache and full beard – and enjoyed how much his unkempt appearance annoyed the fashionable elite. In the mid-1850s, when other men were only just beginning to let their chin hairs appear, Watts was photographed by James Soame wearing a full-length smock, rather like a monk’s habit, with his bare feet visible beneath the hem and unruly facial hair cascading on to his chest.
Source: Moustaches, Whiskers & Beards, Lucinda Hawksley