John William WATERHOUSE
(1849-1917)
John William Waterhouse was born in Rome to British parents on April 6, 1849. He lived there for the first 6 years of his life,
absorbing the character of Italian culture until his family's return to England.
Waterhouse, known to his family as 'Nino', was an avid scholar of ancient history during his youth, and unlike most members of
the Royal Academy his only tutorage in art was from his father. His first submission of a drawing to the R.A. was rejected,
prompting him to seek admission as a sculptor. When admitted as a probationer in the Sculpture School in July of 1870 he was
fortunately sponsored by a painter- F.R. Pickersgill. It was he who returned young Nino's attentions back to the art of painting.
One of his earliest paintings to be purchased by a private collector was "La Fileuse", a lovely painting done in 1874 whose qualities include a perfectly graceful approach to the styling of a woman's figure- particularly notable are her hands, and the addition of a Greco-Roman setting- a testament to Watherhouse's love of the city he was to return to over and over again throughout his lifetime.
His first exhibit to the Royal academy, The sensitive "Sleep and his Half-Brother Death", was a result of the recent deaths of his two younger brothers who were taken by tuberculosis. It is an unusual painting for this period, resting in a much sadder vein than most of his works.
1882 brought us "Diogenes", one of the works of Waterhouse closest resembling the work of the highly respected (by artists) Alma-Tadema.
By this time Waterhouse was exhitbiting regularly and was making a fairly lucrative living from his art. Around 1885 he was finally elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy. In 1888 he exhibited a painting at the Academy which was to become his most famous masterpiece- "The Lady of Shalott". Although most of the critics praised it only lightly, it was later bought by the Tate Gallery for far above the standard prices of the day.
"The Shrine" came out in 1895, the same year that he was finally elected a Full Academician. His election stirred little excitement as it had been considered a certainty for years."Hylas and the Nymphs" has been the most widely exhibited of all his works; from the Paris Exhibition of 1900 to the Arts Council's "Great Victorian Pictures" of 1978."A Mermaid" of 1901 was praised by the "Art Journal", whose critics wrote: "The whistful-sad look of this fair mermaid, seated in her rock-bound home, combing the dull-red hair ere she studs it with pearls that lie in the iridescent shell, is potent in suggestion. It tells of human longings never to be satisfied... The chill of the sea lies over her heart; the endless murmur of waters is a poor substitute for the sound of human voices; never can this beautiful creature, troubled with emotion, experience on the one hand unawakened repose, on the other the joys of womanhood."
Similarly, "Echo and Narcissus", a huge canvas measuring 43x74-1/2 inches, was doted on by the "Art Journal", who called it "One of the best examples of imaginitave art which can be found in the Academy".
In 1902 the painting "Windflowers" began a new theme of beauty and flowers which was to be practiced on and off for the next ten years in such works as "Vanity" and "My Sweet Rose".
"I am Half Sick of Shadows" was Nino's 3rd painting on the subject of Tennyson's "Lady of Shallot". This painting represents the line in the poem when the Lady, destined to be forever alone, expresses her loneliness: "I am half-sick of shadows, said the Lady of Shalott".
"Miranda- The Tempest" has always been considered one of the finest works painted in the last year of Nino's life. Miranda stands swaying against the storm while under the high cliffs the doomed ship plunges downwards- a scene filled with all the drama fit to portray such a subject. In a tribute which relates with what esteem this artist was held by his peers, the painting "The Enchanted Garden" was shown after his death at the Academy of 1917- even though it remained an unfinished work.
It is worthwhile to mention that although it has only been recently that Waterhouse's work has resurfaced into the mainstream, he was, in his own lifetime, considered to be one of the greatest artist's of his day. Often he is considered to be a pre-raphaelite artist, but in reality he never belonged to the brotherhood and was always original; inspired by his own love of history and myth.
His paintings are successful due not only to their perfection in the academic sense, but also because they reach to us- even goddesses have that 'girl next door' quality that we recognize and can relate with in our own world.
On February 10, 1917 a long illness made end of one of the finest painters of myth and beauty known to British art.
Alma-Tadema,
Lawrence
Asoma,
Tadashi
Bosch,
Hieronymus
Botticelli,
Sandro
Boucher,
Francois
Burne-Jones,
Sir Edward
Cezanne,
Paul
Constable,
John
Courbet,
Gustave
Da
Vinci, Leonardo
Dali,
Salvador
Degas,
Edgar
Delacroix,
Eugene
Delaroche,
Paul
Dufy,
Raoul
Durer,
Albrecht
Gauguin,
Paul
Goya,
Francisco de
Hoitsu,
Sakai
Hokusai,
Katsushika
Hopper,
Edward
Kandinsky,
Wassily
Klee,
Paul
Klimt,
Gustav
Man
Ray
Marc,
Franz
Matisse,
Henri E.
Michelangelo
Modigliani,
Amedeo
Mondrian,
Piet
Monet,
Claude
Motherwell,
Robert
Mucha,
Alphonse Marie
Munch,
Edvard
Pollock,
Jackson
Picasso,
Pablo
Raphael,
Sanzio
Redon,
Odilon
Rembrandt
Van Rijn
Renoir,
Pierre Auguste
Rivera,
Diego
Rodin,
Auguste
Rossetti,
Dante Gabriel
Rothko,
Mark
Rubens,
Peter Paul
Sargent,
John Singer
Schiele,
Egon
Seurat,
Georges
Van
Gogh, Vincent
Velazquez,
Diego
Vermeer,
Jan
Warhol,
Andy
Waterhouse,
John William
Whistler,
James Abbott McNeill
