John William Godward
Paintings
When the Heart is Young
Sweet doing nothing. Dolce far niente
The Tigerskin. Sewing Girl
Lycinna
The Sweet Siesta of a Summer Day
A Congenial Task
Leisure Hours
A Pompeian Lady
In the Days of Sappho
In the Tepidarium
In the Grove of the Temple of Isis
Sweet doing nothing. Dolce far niente
Violets sweet violets
Waiting for the procession
A Priestess of Bacchus
Outside the Gate of Pompeii
Playtime
Idleness
On the Balcony
A Fair Reflection
At the Gate of the Temple
The Quiet Pet
Eighty and eighteen
A mouse in the work basket
At The Fountain
A Tryst
Beauty in a Marble Room
Mischief and Repose
Nude On The Beach
Atalanta
A Roman Beauty
The Fragrant Rose
A Dilettante
Eighty and eighteen
The Day Dream
Ione
Marcella
The trysting place
Megilla
The Letter. A Classical Maiden
Leaning against a Column
Winding Wool
The Time of Roses
A Cool Retreat
Soft Falls the Eventide
Carina
The Signal
Far away Thoughts
Heart on her Lips and Soul within her Eyes
An Offering to Venus
Julia
Girl in Yellow Drapery
The Bouquet
The Tambourine Girl
Androclea
Clymene
Preparing for the Bath
Repose. The Flower Girl
Myrhinna
Eurypyle
Ismenia
Atalanta 2
Stesicrate
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
Rich Gifts Wax Poor When Lovers Prove Unkind
The Sweet Siesta of a Summer Day
Under the Blossom that Hangs on the Bough
With Violets Wreathed and Robe of Saffron Hue
Looking Out to Sea
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 his 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. He was born to John Godward (an investment clerk at the Law Life Assurance Society, London) and Sarah Eboral.[1](pp17–19) He was the eldest of five children. He was named after his father John and grandfather William. He was christened at St. Mary's Church in Battersea on 17 October 27 1861. The overbearing attitude of his parents made him reclusive and shy later in adulthood.[1](p22)
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
"Venus Binding Her Hair", 1913
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 artifacts 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'.
Godward "quickly established a reputation for his paintings of young women in a classical setting and his ability to convey with sensitivity and technical mastery the feel of contrasting textures, flesh, marble, fur and fabrics."[2] Godward's penchant for creating works of art set in the classical period probably came from the time period in which he was born. "The last full-scale classical revival in western painting bloomed in England in the 1860s and flowered there for the next three decades."[3]
List of works by the artist
c.1880-1881
Portrait of Mary Perkington Godward
c. 1882-1883
Portrait of Mary Frederica Godward
c.1883
Country House in the 18th Century
c.1887
Expectation
Poppaea
Portrait of Harriet (Hetty) Pettigrew in Classical Dress
Portrait of Lillian (Lilly) Pettigrew in Classical Dress
A Yellow Turban
c. 1887-1888
Japonica
A Roman Head
1888
A Beauty in Profile
An Eastern Beauty
The Engagement Ring
Flo
Ianthe
Lily
Threissa
The Tiff
Waiting for the Dance
1889
Callirhoe
Grecian Reverie
A Greek Girl
Head of a Roman Woman[4]
Ianthe
His Birthday Gift
Waiting For An Answer
1890
A Pompeian Bath
Athenais
Flowers Of Venus
1891
A Pompeian Lady
Innocent Amusement
The Sweet Siesta of a Summer Day
1892
At The Garden Shrine, Pompeii
Classical Beauty
Far Away Thoughts (landscape format)
Far Away Thoughts (portrait format)
Leaning On The Balcony
The Betrothed
The Playground
With Violets Wreathed And Robe Of Saffron Hue
1893
A Priestess (nude)
Reflections
Yes Or No
1894
A Priestess
1895
Mischief And Repose
The Muse Erato At Her Lyre
Tigerskin (date uncertain)
1896
Campaspe (nude)
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
1897
Dolce Far Niente (first version)
Venus Binding Her Hair, by 1897 (nude)
1898
At The Gate Of The Temple
Idle thoughts
On The Balcony (first version)
The Ring
1899
The Bouquet
The Delphic Oracle
The Mirror
The Signal
1900
Idleness
The Jewel Casket
The Toilet
1901
At The Garden Door
Chloris
Girl In Yellow Drapery
Idle Hours
Sweet Dreams
The Favourite
The Seamstress
Venus At The Bath (nude)
Youth And Time
Drusilla, 1906
1902
An Italian Girl's Head
Ionian Dancing Girl
1903
Amaryllis
Summer Flowers
The Old, Old Story
The Rendezvous
1904
A Melody
Dolce Far Niente (second version)
In The Days Of Sappho
1905
A Greek Beauty
A Roman Matron
Flabellifera
Mischief
1906
Drusilla
Nerissa
The Tambourine Girl (first version - girl facing the viewer)
The Tambourine Girl (second version - girl reclining against wall)
1907
The Love Letter
1908
A Classical Lady
A Grecian Girl
Ismenia
1909
A Classical Beauty
A Grecian Lovely (date uncertain)
At The Thermae (semi nude)
Tympanistria
1910
A Cool Retreat
Noon Day Rest
Reverie (first version)
Sappho
1911
In Realms Of Fancy
On The Balcony (second version)
1912
A Tryst
Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder
An Offering To Venus
By The Wayside
Reverie (second version)
Sabinella
The Peacock Fan
1913
Golden Hours
In The Tepidarium (nude)
La Pensierosa
Le Billet Doux
The Belvedere
1914
The Necklace
The New Perfume
Tranquility
1915
In The Prime Of The Summer Time
1916
Ancient Pastimes
By The Blue Ionian Sea
Lesbia With Her Sparrow
1917
A Lily Pond
The Fruit Vendor
Under The Blossom That Hangs On The Bough
1918
A Fond farewell
Sweet Sounds
1920
A Red, Red Rose
1921
Megilla
1922
Contemplation
Nu Sur La Plage (an exception to all other works, this is a 'modern' nude)
Date unknown
Grape Vines
Ophelia
Time To Play
This list is not a complete list, but serves to illustrate the extent of Godward's output.
References
Swanson, Vern (1997). John William Godward: The Eclipse of Classicism. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 978-1-85149-270-1.
Swanson, Vern (1997). John William Godward: The Eclipse of Classicism. Woodbridge, Suffolk, U.K.: Antique Collector's Club. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-85149-270-1.
Gaines, Charles (1985). "Art: Those Victorian Ladies". Architectural Digest 42: 125.
Swanson, Vern (1997). John William Godward: The Eclipse of Classicism. Woodbridge, Suffolk, U.K.: Antique Collector's Club. pp. 172–176. ISBN 978-1-85149-270-1.
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