John Waterhouse; Melancholic Beauty

Pale skin, bright hair and in depth detailed faces that illustrate such emotion on a piece of canvas.  John William Waterhouse’s depictions of women being portrayed in such romantic and melancholic scenes are so touching to my heart.

Waterhouse was an English painter during the Victorian era, his specialty most well known are his large-scale paintings of classical mythological subjects.  There is some sort of underlying emotion that lays beneath his paintings, be it the slightly pale glow that illuminates his figures or the distinct longing look in each of his subjects eyes.

In the beginning of Waterhouse’s artistic career he pursued sculpture while studying at the Royal Academy in London.  In 1874 he shifted his major to painting, ‘Sleep and His Half-Brother Death’ being one of the earliest pieces that made Waterhouse realize his potential in the field of painting. 

Waterhouse’s pieces knew how to pull at the strings of the mind and knew how to make melancholy so beautiful.

https://www.thecultureconcept.com/john-william-waterhouse-beauty-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder

https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-William-Waterhouse