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John William Waterhouse 1849 – 1917 The Modern Pre-Raphaelite The painter of myth and beautiful women All rights reserved. Rights belong to their respective owners. Available free for non-commercial and personal use. First created, Sep 2009. Version 1.1. 10 Mar 12, London. Jerry Tse An early work – Recreating ancient Rome and Greece. The death of a 12 year old Christian martyr. The death of a 12 year old Christian martyr. This is the first painting that launched John Waterhouse’s career as a painter. It made him noticed. What is it in the painting that get him noticed. St Eulalia look much older than 12 with well developed breasts. A nude lying on the ground is attractive enough but also in snow makes it a very powerful image. Pigeons are not scavengers but they seem to be ready to feast on the body. Pigeon is usually the symbol of peace and also the symbol for the presence of the Holy Ghost. The hairs are neatly spread hair mix with blood. The on-lookers being kept away adding to the mystery of the painting. Finally, the whole painting is united by shade of red, making pleasant to look at. Marianmne - An innocent adulteress. Sister’s gossip in a husband’s ears (King Herod). Doubting jury? Lady Shalott ‘The Lady of Shalott’ is a ballad by the poet Lord Tennyson (English 1809-1892). Lady Shalott was condemned by a curse to see the outside through her mirror, in the tower. She was weaving a tapestry, when she saw Sir Lancelot directly and fell in love with him. She left the tower upon a boat. She dies before reaching Camelot. Lying, robed in snowy white That loosely [chain] flew to left and right -The leaves upon her falling light – Thro’ the noises of the night, She floated down to Camelot…. A beautiful goddess with a potion of drugs. With her wand, she turns men into pigs. Ulysses comes to recue his sailors. All Waterhouse’s mythical females are beautiful but real people. The Sirens in this paintings are based on the female sphinxes. Circe tipping her potion to poison her adversary. “To the celestial and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia …..” Hamlet (Shakespeare). Waterhouse’s paintings often depict a romantic approach to the female fatale. Beautiful, young and real, rarely mythical. She maybe dignified or curious but always expressionless. Are the women repressed and lovelorn? She saw the water-lily bloom She saw the helmet and the plume …….. The mirror crack’d from side to side “The curse is come upon me” cried The Lady of Shalott. Group of seven women in several of his paintings. Coincident or occult? The interlocking glances She (Ariadne) sleeps while her ungrateful lover (Theseus) sails away. Tragic women Destiny is drinking a toast to the departing warriors. This painting was given to the Artists War Fund in support of the casualties of the Boer War. Orpheus, the greatest musician in Greek myth, with his lyre. Victorian romanticism? The Siren is the Ancient Greek equivalent of the Mermaid. The Tragedy of the Mermaid. A sinister scaly tail contrast with the soft and beautiful body. The mermaid, like Sirens, is condemned to lure the passing sailors to their death, singing the song of love. But there is no love and there is no family, only loneliness. Boreas is the Greek god of the cold north wind. Painting shows a girl holding her scarf in the wind in Spring. Psyche, the most beautiful mortal take peep at the Golden Box, given to her by Venus and contains an infernal sleep. Waterhouse painted women with beauty and simplicity. Is this goddess Proserpina who was carried to the Underground by Pluto while gathering flowers? Diogenes was a Cynic philosopher, who ask Alexander the Great not to block the sun, when Alexander request what service he could render him. Lamia was a beautiful queen who became a children devouring monster, with a serpent’s tail. Ophelia … far too soft, too good, too fair… so exquisitely delicate, it seems as if a touch would profane it…. The love of Ophelia … is a secret ….. By Mrs. Jameson 1832 Or weak and fable? His passion for poetry inspires him to paint the romantic imagination encapsulated in the works of Shakespeare, Tennyson and Keats. “Rose of the World” a famed beauty who fell in love with King Henry II of England, became his mistress, met the king in Clifford Castle. The Lady of Shalott There she weaves by night and day A magic web with colours gay Another of group of women but only six of them. Miranda of Tempest, who thinks all men are wonderful. Isolde was escorted by Tristan to marry his uncle. Accidentally Isolde and Tristan drank the love portion, which was meant for the wedding night. Biography John William Waterhouse (1849 – 1917) painted female characters from mythology and literature. He was inspired by the paintings of Sir Lawrence Alm-Tadema, whose depictions of classical, Roman landscapes and legends. He unified the immediacy of French naturalist techniques with the Romantic imagination encapsulated in the works of Shakespeare, Tennyson and Keats. From the early 1890s he broadened the literary scope to encompass Greek myths as told by Homer, Ovid and other ancient poets. He received his diploma from the Academy for his painting of a Mermaid. He Married the flower-painter Esther Kenworthy in 1883. The childless couple rented room near their Primrose Hill. He died in 1917 in London after a long struggle with liver cancer. On Waterhouse, Christopher Wood once wrote “[He] only had one song to sing yet he sang it very beautifully”. The End Music : Sometimes When It Rains by Secret Garden.