John William Waterhouse

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John William Waterhouse
John William Waterhouse, working on "Lamia", circa 1908-09.
Born	6 April 1849(1849-04-06) Rome, Italy
Died	10 February 1917 (aged 67) London, England
Nationality	British
Field	Painter
Training	Royal Academy
Movement	Pre-Raphaelite
Works	Hylas and the Nymphs The Lady of Shalott Ophelia
Influenced by	Lawrence Alma-Tadema Frederic Leighton

John William Waterhouse (6 April 1849 — 10 February 1917) was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter who is most famous for his paintings of female characters from Greek and Arthurian mythology.

Waterhouse was one of the final Pre-Raphaelite artists, being most productive in the latter decades of the 19th century and early decades of the 20th, long after the era of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Because of this, he has been referred to as "the modern Pre-Raphaelite", and incorporated techniques borrowed from the French Impressionists into his work.^[1]

Biography

Early life

Waterhouse was born in the city of Rome to the British painters William and Isabella Waterhouse in 1849, in the same year that the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Dante Rossetti, John Millais and William Holman Hunt, were first causing a stir in the London art scene.^[2] The exact date of his birth is unknown, though he was baptised on 6th April, and the later scholar of Waterhouse's work, Peter Trippi, believed that he was born between the 1st and 23rd January of that year.^[3] His early life in Italy has been cited as one of the reasons why many of his later paintings would be set in ancient Rome or based upon scenes taken from Roman mythology.

In 1854, the Waterhouses returned to England and moved to a newly-built house in South Kensington, London, which was located near to the newly founded Victoria and Albert Museum. Waterhouse, or 'Nino' as he was nicknamed, coming from an artistic family, was encouraged to get involved in drawing, and often sketched artworks that he found in the British Museum and the National Gallery.^[4] In 1871 he entered the Royal Academy of Art school, initially to study sculpture, before moving on to painting.

Early career

Waterhouse's early works were not Pre-Raphaelite in nature, but were of classical themes in the spirit of Alma-Tadema and Frederic Leighton. These early works were exhibited at the Dudley Gallery, and the Society of British Artists, and in 1874 his painting Sleep and His Half Brother Death was exhibited at the Royal Academy summer exhibition.^[5] The painting was a success and Waterhouse would exhibit at the annual exhibition every year until 1916, with the exception of 1890 and 1915. He then went from strength to strength in the London art scene, with his 1876 piece After the Dance being given the prime position in that year's summer exhibition. Perhaps due to his success, his paintings typically became larger and larger in size.^[6]

Later career

In 1883 he married Esther Kenworthy, the daughter of an art schoolmaster from Ealing who had exhibited her own flower-paintings at the Royal Academy and elsewhere. They did not have any children. In 1895 Waterhouse was elected to the status of full Academician. He taught at the St. John's Wood Art School, joined the St John's Wood Arts Club, and served on the Royal Academy Council.

Sleep and his Half-brother Death, 1874

One of Waterhouse's most famous paintings is The Lady of Shalott, a study of Elaine of Astolat, who dies of grief when Lancelot will not love her. He actually painted three different versions of this character, in 1888, 1894, and 1916. Another of Waterhouse's favorite subjects was Ophelia; the most famous of his paintings of Ophelia depicts her just before her death, putting flowers in her hair as she sits on a tree branch leaning over a lake. Like The Lady of Shalott and other Waterhouse paintings, it deals with a woman dying in or near water. He also may have been inspired by paintings of Ophelia by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Millais. He submitted his Ophelia painting of 1888 in order to receive his diploma from the Royal Academy. (He had originally wanted to submit a painting titled "A Mermaid", but it was not completed in time.) After this, the painting was lost until the 20th century, and is now displayed in the collection of Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Waterhouse would paint Ophelia again in 1894 and 1909 or 1910, and planned another painting in the series, called "Ophelia in the Churchyard."

Waterhouse could not finish the series of Ophelia paintings because he was gravely ill with cancer by 1915. He died two years later, and his grave can be found at Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

Gallery

1870s

Undine 1872	Gone, But Not Forgotten 1873	The Unwelcome Companion--A Street Scene in Cairo 1873	La Fileuse 1874
In the Peristyle 1874	Miranda 1875	A Sick Child brought into the Temple of Aesculapius 1877	The Remorse of the Emperor Nero after the Murder of his Mother 1878

1880s

Dolce far Niente 1880	Diogenes 1882	The Favorites of the Emperor Honorius 1883	Consulting the Oracle 1884
Saint Eulalia 1885	Magic Circle 1886	The Lady of Shalott 1888	Cleopatra 1888
Ophelia 1889

1890s

A Roman Offering 1890	Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus 1891	Ulysses and the Sirens 1891	Danaë 1892
Circe Invidiosa 1892	A Naiad or Hylas with a Nymph 1893	La Belle Dame sans Merci 1893	A Female Study 1894
The Lady of Shalott Looking at Lancelot 1894	Ophelia 1894	The Shrine 1895	Saint Cecilia 1895
Pandora 1896	Hylas and the Nymphs 1896	Juliet 1898

1900s

The Siren circa 1900	Destiny 1900	The Lady Clare 1900	Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus 1900
The Mermaid 1901	The Crystal Ball 1902	The Missal 1902	Windflowers 1902
Boreas 1903	Psyche Opening the Golden Box 1903	Psyche Opening the Door into Cupid's Garden 1904	Lamia (version 1) 1905
Jason and Medea 1907	The Bouquet (a study) 1908	Gather Ye Rosebuds or Ophelia (a study) circa 1908	Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May... 1908
The Soul of the Rose or My Sweet Rose 1908	Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May 1909	Lamia (version 2) 1909	Thisbe 1909

1910s

Ophelia 1910	Spring Spreads One Green Lap of Flowers 1910	The Charmer 1911	Penelope and the Suitors 1912
The Annunciation 1914	Beatrice Circa 1915	Dante and Beatrice 1915	I am half-sick of shadows, said the Lady of Shalott 1916
A Tale from the Decameron 1916	Miranda -- The Tempest 1916	Tristan and Isolde 1916

See also

• Category:John William Waterhouse paintings
• List of paintings by John William Waterhouse

References

• Benezit, E. (2006). Waterhouse, John William. In Dictionary of Artists (Vol 14, pp 668-669). Paris: Grund.
• Trippi, P. (2002). J.W.Waterhouse. New York, NY: Phaidon Press Limited.

Further reading

• Moyle, Franny (13 June 2009), "Pre-Raphaelite art: the paintings that obsessed the Victorians [print version: Sex and death: The paintings that obsessed the Victorians]", The Daily Telegraph (Review): R2–R3, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/5497198/Pre-Raphaelite-art-the-paintings-that-obsessed-the-Victorians.html .
• Simpson, Eileen (17 June 2009), "Pre-Raphaelites for a new generation: Letters, June 17: Pre-Raphaelite revival", The Daily Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/5552131/Pre-Raphaelites-for-a-new-generation.html .
• Dorment, Richard (29 June 2009), "Waterhouse: The modern Pre-Raphaelite, at the Royal Academy – review", The Daily Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-reviews/5688056/Waterhouse-the-modern-Pre-Raphaelite-at-the-Royal-Academy---review.html .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John William Waterhouse

• John William Waterhouse (The Art and Life of JW Waterhouse);
• John William Waterhouse (Comprehensive Painting Gallery)
• "J.W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite": information about the upcoming exhibition 2008-2010
• Galleries Guide to Waterhouse Works Worldwide
• Waterhouse at Tate Britain
• Echo and Narcissus (1903)
• John William Waterhouse at artrenewal.org
• Ten Dreams Galleries
• John William Waterhouse in the "History of Art"
• Scent and femininity in John William Waterhouse's "The Soul of the Rose"
• Hundreds of images by the artist online.