John William Waterhouse 1849 - 1917

John William Waterhouse 

John William Waterhouse English artist, was born in 1849. whose work is attributed to the later stage of Pre-Raphaelism. Known for his female images, which he borrowed from mythology and literature. Born in Rome, in a family of artists. They later moved to London, where Waterhouse lived for the rest of his life. At first, his father taught him painting skills, in 1870 the young man entered the Royal Academy of Arts.

The early works of the artist are influenced by Alma-Tadema and Frederick Leighton. In 1874, at the age of twenty-five, he presented at the exhibition the painting "Sleep and his half-brother Death", which was well received by critics and subsequently exhibited almost every year, until the artist's death.

In 1883, Waterhouse married the artist Esther Kenworthy, whose paintings also appeared in exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts. They had two children who died early, but despite this, the marriage was happy.

In 1895 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy. The artist died of cancer in 1917. Buried in London's Kensal Green Cemetery.

Depicted on a 1992 British postage stamp.

However, the artist owes his enduring popularity most of all to the charm of his brooding models. It is believed that the artist's wife was the model for the painting “Lady of Shallot”.

In 1908-1914, Waterhouse created a number of paintings based on literary and mythological subjects (Miranda, Tristan and Isolde, Psyche, Persephone and others). In these paintings, the artist paints his favorite model, recently identified by Waterhouse researchers Ken and Katie Baker as Miss Muriel Foster. Very little is known about the private life of Waterhouse - only a few letters have survived to this day and, in fact, for many years the personalities of his models remained a secret. It is also known from the memoirs of contemporaries that Mary Lloyd, the model of Lord Leighton's masterpiece "The Flaming June", posed for Waterhouse as well.

One of the most famous paintings of Waterhouse is considered "Lady of Shallot", dedicated to Elaine of Astolat (aka Lilia maiden) - a girl who died of unrequited love for the knight Lancelot, a character from the legends of King Arthur and the heroine of Tennyson's poem "Sorceress Shallot". Waterhouse created three versions of the painting: in 1888, 1896 and 1916.

Another heroine of the artist is Ophelia. In the first painting (1889), the artist shows her lying in a meadow, then, in the painting in 1894, before her death, sitting by the shore of the lake. On a canvas from 1910, Ophelia stands on the bank of a stream, holding onto a tree, ready to take the last step into the water.

In June 2006, St. Cecilia was auctioned off at Christie's to the Lloyd Webber Foundation for £ 6.6 million.