John William Waterhouse, Biography and Works

John William Waterhouse.

John William Waterhouse (Rome, April 6, 1849 - London, February 10, 1917) was a British painter. His pictorial beginnings were influenced by Victorian neoclassicism. Later, he becomes a Pre-Raphaelite painter; He is considered a "modern Pre-Raphaelite", since his works date back to a few decades after the dissolution of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.

Later he was attracted by the plenairism of the French Impressionists. If at the beginning of his career he dedicated himself to themes of classical antiquity, later he addressed literary ones (predominating mythological and Arthurian themes), always with a soft and mysterious style, imbued with romanticism, which allows him to be framed within symbolism.

Famous painter during his lifetime, his fame declined during the 20th century. However, at the end of this century there was a revaluation of his contributions to the history of painting.

Biography

Waterhouse was born in Rome, son of the English painter William Waterhouse and his wife, also a painter, Isabella. His family and friends called him “Nino”, a diminutive of the Italian name Giovannino. John was five years old when the family moved to London (South Kensington), near the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1857, his mother and his brother died of tuberculosis. His father remarried in 1860 to Frederica Mary Jane Perceval, granddaughter of the assassinated British Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval.

Diogenes 1882

He received classes from his father. Meanwhile, he copied works from the National Gallery and took lessons at South Kensington School. In 1871 - after several failed attempts - he was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in London.

In 1872, Waterhouse exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists. It is believed that his sister Jessica was one of his first models. His early works were classically themed, deeply influenced by Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Frederic Leighton.

Waterhouse was the successor to the generation of painters which, for example, had been dominated by Frederic Leighton, George Frederic Watts, Edward Burne-Jones and Lawrence Alma-Tadema. He was inspired by many of these great Victorian painters and developed his own style in which classicism, romanticism, fantasy and reality are intertwined. He was less concerned with subtlety of detail than his Victorian ancestors, while to the Pre-Raphaelites he owed his subject matter and richness of color, but not the degree of perfection. Some of the landscapes in his paintings are similar to those of the Impressionists.

In 1874, at the age of twenty-five, Waterhouse submitted the classic allegory The Dream and the Death of His Half-Brother to the Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts.

The magic circle 1886

At the age of 28 he traveled abroad, having a special predilection for Italy, and this was strongly reflected in his works, influenced by Italian life and customs. The creations of this period are themed around ancient history and the classical genre, similar to those of the painter Alma-Tadema. However, he also created paintings with certain oriental airs.

In 1883, Waterhouse married Esther Kenworthy, daughter of an Ealing art teacher who had exhibited her own flower paintings at the Royal Academy and elsewhere. They had two children, both of whom died prematurely.

One of Waterhouse's best-known subjects is The Lady of Shalott, a study of Elaine of Astolat as described in Alfred's 1832 poem, Lord Tennyson, who dies from a mysterious curse after looking directly at the beautiful Lancelot. In fact, she painted three different versions of this character, in 1888, 1894 and 1916. Another of Waterhouse's favorite subjects was Ophelia; The most familiar of Ofelia's paintings of her depicts her just before her death, putting flowers in her hair while she sits on a tree branch leaning over a lake. Like The Lady of Shalott and other Waterhouse paintings, it is about a woman who dies in or near water. She may also have been inspired by the Ophelia paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais.

The Lady of Shalott 1888

He submitted his painting Ophelia from 1888 to receive his diploma from the Royal Academy. (He had originally wanted to present a painting titled A Mermaid, but it was not completed in time.) After this, the painting was lost until the 20th century. Now displayed in the collection of Lord Lloyd-Webber. Waterhouse would paint Ophelia again in 1894 and 1909 or 1910, and planned another painting in the series, called Ophelia in the Graveyard.

Waterhouse was unable to finish the Ophelia series of paintings because he was seriously ill with cancer in 1915. He died two years later and his grave can be found in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

Artistic evolution

The Siren 1900

Waterhouse's pictorial style remained practically unchanged throughout his life, but in any case, the theme of his works changed depending on the stage he was going through.

In a first stage we can distinguish works with a classical theme, corresponding to Waterhouse's travels through Italy. Starting in 1880 he began a new era based on literary themes, where a clear influence of Greek mythology and literature is seen. From 1900 onwards, influenced by Impressionism, he became calmer and used lighter and brighter colors.