John William Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse
Waterhouse, c. 1886
Born	(1849-04-06)6 April 1849 Rome, Roman Republic (now Rome, Italy)
Died	10 February 1917(1917-02-10) (aged 67) London, England
Nationality	British
Works	Hylas and the Nymphs The Lady of Shalott The Magic Circle Ophelia A Mermaid
Movement	Pre-Raphaelite
Spouse	Esther Kenworthy Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse RA (6 April 1849 – 10 February 1917) was an English painter known for working first in the Academic style and for then embracing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. His paintings are known for their depictions of women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend. A high proportion depict a single young and beautiful woman in a historical costume and setting, though there are some ventures into Orientalist painting and genre painting, still mostly featuring women.

Born in Rome to English parents who were both painters, Waterhouse later moved to London, where he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Art Schools. He soon began exhibiting at their annual summer exhibitions, focusing on the creation of large canvas works depicting scenes from the daily life and mythology of ancient Greece. Many of his paintings are based on authors such as Homer, Ovid,^[1] Shakespeare, Tennyson, or Keats.

Waterhouse's work is displayed in many major art museums and galleries, and the Royal Academy of Art organised a major retrospective of his work in 2009.

Biography

Early life

Waterhouse was born in the city of Rome to the English painters William and Isabella Waterhouse in 1849, in the same year that the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett 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 6 April, and the later scholar of Waterhouse's work, Peter Trippi, believed that he was born between 1 and 23 January.^[3] His early life in Italy has been cited as one of the reasons many of his later paintings were 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 near to the newly founded Victoria and Albert Museum. Waterhouse, or 'Nino' as he was nicknamed, coming from an artistic family, was encouraged to become 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, 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.^[5]

Later career

In 1883, Waterhouse married Esther Kenworthy, the daughter of an art schoolmaster from Ealing who had exhibited her own flower-paintings at the Royal Academy and elsewhere. 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.

One of Waterhouse's best known subjects is The Lady of Shalott, a study of Elaine of Astolat as depicted in the 1832 poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who dies of a mysterious curse after looking directly at the beautiful Lancelot. He actually painted three different versions of this character, in 1888, 1894, and 1916. Another of Waterhouse's favorite subjects was Ophelia; the most familiar 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 may also have been inspired by paintings of Ophelia by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais.

He submitted his 1888 Ophelia painting 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. It is now displayed in the collection of Lord Lloyd-Webber. Waterhouse would paint Ophelia again in 1894 and 1909 or 1910, and he 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.^[6]

Gallery

In total, he produced 118 paintings. See List of paintings by John William Waterhouse for an almost complete list.

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
• 
  After the Dance
  1876
• 
  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 Favourites of the Emperor Honorius
  1883
• 
  Consulting the Oracle
  1884
• 
  Saint Eulalia
  1885
• 
  The Magic Circle
  1886
• 
  Mariamne Leaving the Judgement Seat of Herod
  1887
• 
  The Lady of Shalott
  1888
• 
  Cleopatra
  1888
• 
  Ophelia
  1889

1890s

• 
  A Roman Offering
  1890
• 
  Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses
  1891
• 
  Ulysses and the Sirens
  1891
• 
  Danaë
  1892
• 
  Circe Invidiosa
  1892
• 
  Gathering Summer Flowers in a Devonshire Garden
  1892-1893
• 
  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
• 
  Hylas and the Nymphs
  1896
• 
  Pandora
  1896
• 
  Juliet
  1898
• 
  Ariadne
  1898

1900s

• 
  The Siren
  1900
• 
  Destiny
  1900
• 
  The Lady Clare
  1900
• 
  Study for Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus
  1900
• 
  Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus
  1900
• 
  The Mermaid
  1901
• 
  The Crystal Ball
  1902
• 
  The Missal
  1902
• 
  Windflowers
  1902
• 
  Boreas
  1903
• 
  Echo and Narcissus
  1903
• 
  Psyche Opening the Golden Box
  1903
• 
  Psyche Opening the Door into Cupid's Garden
  1904
• 
  Lamia
  (version 1)
  1905
• 
  The Danaides, 1906
• 
  Jason and Medea
  1907
• 
  Isabella and the pot of basil
  1907
• 
  The Bouquet
  (a study)
  1908
• 
  Gather Ye Rosebuds or Ophelia (a study)
  c. 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
• 
  The Sorceress
  c. 1911-1915
• 
  Penelope and the Suitors
  1912
• 
  The Annunciation
  1914
• 
  Dante and Matilda (study) (formerly called "Dante and Beatrice")
  c. 1914–17
• 
  Matilda (study) (formerly called "Beatrice")
  c. 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

References

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

PaintingsRelated