John William Waterhouse ( April 6, 1849 – February 10, 1917) was an English painter who was apart of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and was known how his academic artistic style. Waterhouse was born in Rome and later moved to London, where he went to exhibitions and showed off his large canvas artworks and depicted scenes from daily life and the mythology of Ancient Greece. Most of Waterhouse’s art pieces were inspired by the authors, Homer, Ovid, Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Keats.
Early in Waterhouse’s life, he was not a Pre-Raphaelite in nature but used the classical themes of Alma-Tadema and Frederic Leighton. An important piece that Waterhouse created in his early life was the “Sleep and his Half-brother Death,” which was exhibited at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in London. This painting boosted Waterhouse’s artistic career and his use of canvas sizes grew larger over time. Later on, Waterhouse created the “After the Dance” art piece which he also exhibited. In Waterhouse’s later career, he began to teach at St. John’s Wood Art School and served on the Royal Academy Council. One of Waterhouse’s best known works is “The Lady of Shalott” which depicted a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who dies from a strange curse and gazes at beautiful Lancelot (and Waterhouse painted 3 versions of this character in his life-time). Ophelia was another painting that Waterhouse made, as Ophelia was one of his favourite subjects. Ophelia is painted the moment before she dies, putting flowers in her hair as she leans over a lake. Another painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais also painted their own versions of Ophelia, and Waterhouse was (possibly) their inspiration. And this Ophelia painting helped Waterhouse receive his diploma from the Royal Academy!
As Waterhouse grew older, he struggled to finish his series of Ophelia paintings because he got cancer. In 1915, Waterhouse passed away.
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Personally, I really love Waterhouse’s work, especially Ophelia. Waterhouse’s paintings look exactly like pictures, meaning that the way he paints people are very realistic and I enjoy the themes of nature in his artwork. He was a very talented artist and as I work on my oil portraiture I hope my painting looks realistic like Waterhouse’s.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Waterhouse
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_William_Waterhouse_After_The_Dance.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_of_Shalott_(painting)
Makayla,
Pretty good work on Waterhouse here! You have some background information combined with your thoughts about the artist and the work. The Lady of Shalott is one of my favourite paintings by him and whenever I’m in London I visit the Tate Britain just to look at this marvel. I’m giving you a 2/2 here. Also your score on the mid term quiz was 40/50 which translates to an A- so well done!
Jeff