God Speed
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Guinevere
My Sweet Rose
The Awakening of Adonis
The Siren
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Hylas and the Nymphs
The Mermaid
The Lady of Shallot
Miranda
The soulfully romantic Pre-Raphaelite style of painting seems perfectly in tune with this time of year, what with February 14th just a few days away.
John William Waterhouse (1849 - 1917) was actually working his magic years after the actual Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood had stirred things up in England. But certainly their earlier work retained its influence on the painter born in Italy to English parents who were, themselves, artists.
Waterhouse's early upbringing in Italy appears to have influenced his style and occasionally, the settings of his paintings. Not much is known about his private life except that he married, had no children and his wife outlived him by 27 years. Most of the models who posed for his dramatic canvases remain unknown.
Waterhouse's canvases usually featured idealized, sylph-like women, expansive romantic gestures, glowing light, flowing dresses, blowing wind, tortured souls, tormented lovers in the middle of parting and/or other forms of romantic wretchedness.
He was fond of depicting scenes from medieval romances and Greek mythology. In many cases the myths themselves were not as beautiful in their telling as Waterhouse's artistic interpretations made them out to be, but why quibble. The paintings are exquisite in their stylish sentiment and I don't think that's a bad thing. I'm very fond of his work.
More information on John William Waterhouse is available at this site.
I've always loved JW Waterhouse's paintings. I used to have a huge print of La Belle Dame Sans Merci on my bedroom wall
ReplyDeleteLove his work - so sumptuous! Thank you for sharing these pictures, Yvette! :-)
ReplyDeleteAnother lovely selection Yvette, and one of my favourite Pre-Raphaelite painters.
ReplyDeleteI always look forward to your Saturday postings, and seeing who you will showcase. We admire so many of the same artists!
ReplyDeleteI've got the same one, Lucy. I have the one with blinded knight. Which I meant to post but couldn't find a good enough copy.
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ReplyDeleteActually, Lucy, now that I think on it. The one with blinded knight was done by Dicksee, I think. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Sue. Glad you enjoyed them.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rosemary. I don't love all the Pre-Raphaelites, but Waterhouse is one I do. Also love Frank Dicksee and Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mark. I'd say we have similar likes in art too. I'm slowly adding lots of art to my Pinterest account. Have you been over there yet? It's become quite an obsession. Ha!
ReplyDeleteLove the Pre-Raphaelites!
ReplyDeleteNot all of them, but yeah, I kind of love them too. :)
ReplyDeleteI blame the pre-Raphaelites for never letting me stick to a short haircut. One year when I was in college, I had a John William Waterhouse wall calendar and I spent a lot of time looking at it and daydreaming when I should have been translating Lucretius from Latin to English. All those different cases (accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, AAAAGH!) made my mind wander.
ReplyDeleteHa! My hair would never grow that long - it tends to grow OUT rather than down. I've had short hair since my teens.
ReplyDeleteBut I do love the use of hair as a dramatic mood point in the Pre-Raphaelites' work. Hair gotta' blow in the wind or swirl in the water. :)
Latin. You poor thing. I had my troubles with French. But the odd thing is, I still do remember enough to manage on the French blogs. At least for a few sentences. :)
I love JW Waterhouse's paintings! His painting styleis so contempory and his subjects so romantic. I'll be pinning these Yvette! :)
ReplyDeleteYvette, I've seen those beautiful William Waterhouse paintings of knights and maidens and sirens, but I confess I never knew the artist's name until now! Thanks for introducing me to this amazing artist officially! :-)
ReplyDeletePat: Pin away! Though of course these pix do not belong to me. I wish they did. :)
ReplyDeleteYou're more than welcome, Dorian. It's good to know the genius behind the art. Waterhouse is one of my faves.
ReplyDeleteLove him, mainly for The Lady of Shalott but I've grone to love a lot of his work.
ReplyDeleteHe's one of my favorites, too, Ryan.
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