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John William Godward A Grecian Lovely oil painting


A Grecian Lovely
Painting ID::  68007
John William Godward
A Grecian Lovely
1909(1909) Oil on canvas 20 X 15 7/8 inches (50.8 X 40.6 cm)

   
   
     

John William Godward At the Thermae oil painting


At the Thermae
Painting ID::  68008
John William Godward
At the Thermae
1909(1909) Oil on canvas 30 1/8 X 15 inches (76.8 X 38.1 cm)

   
   
     

John William Godward A Classical Beauty oil painting


A Classical Beauty
Painting ID::  68011
John William Godward
A Classical Beauty
A Classical Beauty, 1909

   
   
     

John William Godward On the Balcony oil painting


On the Balcony
Painting ID::  68013
John William Godward
On the Balcony
1911(1911) Oil on canvas 31 7/8 X 16 1/8 inches (81 X 41 cm)

   
   
     

John William Godward In Realms of Fancy oil painting


In Realms of Fancy
Painting ID::  68014
John William Godward
In Realms of Fancy
Year 1911(1911) Oil on canvas 15 1/4 X 15 1/4 inches (39 X 39 cm)

   
   
     

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     John William Godward
     English 1861-1922 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'.

     Related Artists::.
     | Constantin Daniel Stahi | Otto Karl Kirberg | Paul Emmert |


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