John William Godward

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Nerissa, By John William Godward
Courtesy of Art Renewal Center

John William Godward (August 9, 1861 – December 13, 1922) was an English painter from the end of the Pre-Raphaelite / Neo-Classicist era. He was a protégé of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema but his style of painting fell out of favour with the arrival of painters like Picasso. He committed suicide at the age of 61 and is said to have written in his suicide note that "the world was not big enough" for him and a Picasso.

His already estranged family, who had disapproved of him becoming an artist, were ashamed of his suicide and burned his papers. No photographs of Godward are known to survive.

Godward was born in 1861 and lived in Wilton Grove, Wimbledon. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1887. When he moved to Italy with one of his models in 1912, his family broke off all contact with him and even cut his image from family pictures. Godward returned to England in 1919, died in 1922 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, west London.

One of his best known paintings is Dolce far Niente (1904), which currently resides in the collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber. As in the case of several other paintings, Godward painted more than one version, in this case an earlier (and less well known) 1897 version.

[edit] Works

Godward was a Victorian Neoclassicist, and therefore a follower in theory of Frederick Leighton. However, he is more closely allied stylistically to Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, with whom he shared a penchant for the rendering of Classical architecture, in particular, static landscape features constructed from marble. The vast majority of Godward's extant images feature women in Classical dress, posed against these landscape features, though there are some semi-nude and fully nude figures included in his oeuvre (a notable example being In The Tepidarium (1913), a title shared with a controversial Alma-Tadema painting of the same subject that resides in the Lady Lever Art Gallery). The titles reflect Godward's source of inspiration: Classical civilisation, most notably that of Ancient Rome (again a subject binding Godward closely to Alma-Tadema artistically), though Ancient Greece sometimes features, thus providing artistic ties, albeit of a more limited extent, with Leighton.

Given that Classical scholarship was more widespread among the potential audience for his paintings during his lifetime than in the present day, meticulous research of detail was important in order to attain a standing as an artist in this genre. Alma-Tadema was, as well as a painter, an archaeologist who attended historical sites and collected artefacts that were later used in his paintings: Godward, too, studied such details as architecture and dress, in order to ensure that his works bore the stamp of authenticity. In addition, Godward painstakingly and meticulously rendered those other important features in his paintings, animal skins (the paintings Noon Day Rest (1910) and A Cool Retreat (1910) contain superb examples of such rendition) and wild flowers (Nerissa (1906), illustrated above, and Summer Flowers (1903) are again excellent examples of this).

The appearance of beautiful women in studied poses in so many of Godward's canvases causes many newcomers to his works to categorise him mistakenly as being Pre-Raphaelite, particularly as his palette is often a vibrantly colourful one. However, the choice of subject matter (ancient civilisation versus, for example, Arthurian legend) is more properly that of the victorian Neoclassicist: however, it is appropriate to comment that in common with numerous painters contemporary with him, Godward was a 'High Victorian Dreamer', producing beautiful images of a world which, it must be said, was idealised and romanticised, and which in the case of both Godward and Alma-Tadema came to be criticised as a world-view of 'Victorians in togas'.

[edit] List Of Works By The Artist

A Classical Beauty, 1909
A Classical Lady, 1908
A Cool Retreat, 1910
A Fond farewell, 1918
A Grecian Girl, 1908
A Grecian Lovely, c. 1909
A Greek Beauty, 1905
A Lily Pond, 1917
A Melody, 1904
A Pompeian Lady, 1891
A Priestess, 1893 (nude)
A Priestess, 1894
A Red, Red Rose, 1920
A Roman Natron, 1905
A Tryst, 1912
Abssence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder, 1912
Amaryllis, 1903
An Italian Girl's Head, 1902
An Offering To Venus, 1912
Ancient Pastimes, 1916
At The Garden Door, 1901
At The Garden Shrine, Pompeii, 1892
At The Gate Of The Temple, 1898
At The Thermae, 1909 (semi nude)
Athenais, 1890
By The Blue Ionian Sea, 1916
By The Wayside, 1912
Campaspe, 1896 (nude)
Chloris, 1901
Classical Beauty, 1892
Contemplation,1922
Dolce Far Niente, 1897
Dolce Far Niente, 1904
Drusilla, 1906

Far Away Thoughts 1892

Far Away Thoughts (landscape format), 1892
Far Away Thoughts (portrait format), 1892
Flabellifera, 1905
Flowers Of Venus, 1890
Girl In Yellow Drapery, 1901
Golden Hours, 1913
Grape Vines (date required)
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, 1896
His Birthday Gift, 1889
Ianthe, 1889
Idle Hours, 1901
Idle thoughts, 1898
Idleness, 1900
In Realms Of Fancy, 1911
In The Days Of Sappho, 1904
In The Prime Of The Summer Time, 1915
In The Tepidarium, 1913 (nude)
Innocent Amusement, 1891
Ionian Dancing Girl, 1902
Ismenia, 1908
La Pensierosa, 1913
Le Billet Doux, 1913
Leaning On The Balcony, 1892
Lesbia With Her Sparrow, 1916
Mischief, 1905
Mischief And Repose, 1895
Nerissa, 1906
Noon Day Rest, 1910
Nu Sur La Plage, 1922 (an exception to all other works, this is a 'modern' nude)
On The Balcony, 1898
On The Balcony, 1911
Ophelia (date required)
Reflections, 1893
Reverie, 1910
Reverie, 1912
Sabinella, 1912
Sappho, 1910
Summer Flowers, 1903
Sweet Dreams, 1901
Sweet Sounds (date required)
The Belvedere, 1913
The Betrothed, 1892
The Bouquet, 1899
The Delphic Oracle, 1899
The Favourite, 1901
The Fruit Vendor, 1917
The Jewel Casket, 1900
The Love Letter, 1907
The Mirror, 1899
The Muse Erato At Her Lyre, 1895
The Necklace, 1914
The New Perfume, 1914
The Old, Old Story, 1903
The Peacock Fan, 1912
The Playground, 1892
The Rendezvous, 1903
The Ring, 1898
The Seamstress, 1901
The Signal, 1899
The Tambourine Girl, 1906 (first version - girl facing the viewer)
The Tambourine Girl, 1906 (second version - girl reclining against wall)
The Toilet (date required)
Tigerskin (date required)
Time To Play (date required)
Tranquility, 1914
Tympanistria, 1909
Under The Blossom That Hangs On The Bough, 1917
Venus At The Bath, 1901 (nude)
Venus Binding Her Hair (date required, nude)
Waiting For An Answer, 1889
With Violets Wreathed And Robe Of Saffron Hue, 1892
Yes Or No, 1893
Youth And Time, 1901