John William Godward

John William Godward (9 August, 1861 – 13 December, 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.

Early life

Godward was born in 1861 and lived in Wilton Grove, Wimbledon.

Career

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.

Works

Godward was a Victorian Neo-classicist, and therefore a follower in theory of Frederic 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'.

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 Matron", 1905
*"A Tryst", 1912
*"Absence 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" (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", 1900
*"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", by 1897 (nude)
*"Waiting For An Answer", 1889
*"With Violets Wreathed And Robe Of Saffron Hue", 1892
*"Yes Or No", 1893
*"Youth And Time", 1901

This list is not a complete list, but serves to illustrate the extent of Godward's output.

External links

* [http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2002/John_William_Godward/godward1.asp Biography of J W Godward] by Vern Grosvenor Swanson
*ARC artist|82
* [http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=616 Godward at the Getty Museum]
* [http://www.johnwilliamgodward.org www.johnwilliamgodward.org] Site with 158 images by John William Godward