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John William Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse RA (baptised 6 April 1849 – 10 February 1917) was an English painter known for working first in the Academic style and for then embracing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. His paintings are known for their depictions of women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend. A high proportion depict a single young and beautiful woman in a historical costume and setting, though there are some ventures into Orientalist painting and genre painting, still mostly featuring women.

John William Waterhouse

6 April 1849 [1]

10 February 1917(1917-02-10) (aged 68)

British

Born in Rome to English parents who were both painters, Waterhouse later moved to London, where he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Art Schools. He soon began exhibiting at their annual summer exhibitions, focusing on the creation of large canvas works depicting scenes from the daily life and mythology of ancient Greece. Many of his paintings are based on authors such as Homer, Ovid,[2] Shakespeare, Tennyson, or Keats.


Waterhouse's work is displayed in many major art museums and galleries, and the Royal Academy of Art organised a major retrospective of his work in 2009.

Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

Waterhouse was born in the city of Rome to the English painters William and Isabella Waterhouse in 1849, in the same year that the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt, were first causing a stir in the London art scene.[3] The exact date of his birth is unknown, though he was baptised on 6 April, and the later scholar of Waterhouse's work, Peter Trippi, believed that he was born between 1 and 23 January.[1] His early life in Italy has been cited as one of the reasons many of his later paintings were set in ancient Rome or based upon scenes taken from Roman mythology.


In 1854, the Waterhouses returned to England and moved to a newly built house in South Kensington, London, which was near to the newly founded Victoria and Albert Museum. Waterhouse, or 'Nino' as he was nicknamed, coming from an artistic family, was encouraged to become involved in drawing, and often sketched artworks that he found in the British Museum and the National Gallery.[4] In 1871, he entered the Royal Academy of Art school, initially to study sculpture, before moving on to painting.

Undine
1872

Undine 1872

Gone, But Not Forgotten
1873

Gone, But Not Forgotten 1873

La Fileuse
1874

La Fileuse 1874

In the Peristyle
1874

In the Peristyle 1874

Miranda
1875

Miranda 1875

After the Dance
1876

After the Dance 1876

A Sick Child brought into the Temple of Aesculapius
1877

A Sick Child brought into the Temple of Aesculapius 1877

The Remorse of the Emperor Nero after the Murder of his Mother
1878

The Remorse of the Emperor Nero after the Murder of his Mother 1878

John William Waterhouse.net

Archived 14 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine;

John William Waterhouse (The Art and Life of JW Waterhouse)

John William Waterhouse (Comprehensive Painting Gallery)

John William Waterhouse (1849–1917)

John William Waterhouse Style and Technique

Waterhouse at Tate Britain

Echo and Narcissus (1903)

Ten Dreams Galleries

John William Waterhouse in the "History of Art"

Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections

at the Art UK site

25 artworks by or after John William Waterhouse

at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Portraits of John William Waterhouse

Trippi, Peter. "Waterhouse, John William (1849–1917)". (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/38885. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

. Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

"Waterhouse, John William"

at Library of Congress, with 2 library catalogue records

John William Waterhouse

Findagrave burial record