J. W. Waterhouse – The Modern Pre-Raphaelite

Lady of Shalott, Ophelia, St Cecilia, St Eulalia, A Mermaid and More

Jun 24, 2009

London's Royal Academy is exploring the life and works of John W. Waterhouse. More than 40 paintings will show his relationship to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

The Royal Academy of Arts is hosting a retrospective exhibition of the Pre-Raphaelite artist, John William Waterhouse (1849-1917). The display features more than 40 paintings together with oil, chalk and pencil studies, photographs and sketchbooks. Waterhouse made several sketches in volumes by Shelley and Tennyson and these are also included in the exhibition. The exhibition shows how Waterhouse was inspired by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848, one year before the birth of John. W. Waterhouse. The three artists were soon joined by Thomas Woolner, William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson and Frederic George Stephens.

The group, who believed British art had become boring and corrupt, spurned the "Rules for Painting" adhered to by the Royal Academy of Art. These rules, set out by its founder Sir Joshua Reynolds, were based on the work of his hero, the Renaissance painter Raphael. The rules specified every detail of picture creation, from the choice of subject matter to the method of painting.

The Brotherhood sought a return to the purity of art before Raphael through simple, rather than grandiose subjects. Members of the group were inspired by the literary works of Tennyson, Keats, Alighieri, Shakespeare and others. They painted their subjects with almost photographic accuracy and a brilliance of colour achieved by applying thin layers of pigment over a wet white ground. All signed their work with the monogram "PRB".

Some of their works met with indignation from art critics and the British public. Millais's painting Christ in the House of His Parents was considered to be blasphemous. Charles Dickens thought Mary was ugly – Millais's mother was the model! Critics labelled the Brotherhood's medievalism as backward-looking, and their attention to detail as unpleasant and tiresome. Although the Brotherhood was active as a group for only a few years their influence on British artists such as Waterhouse continued for many years.

John W. Waterhouse – the Artist

John William Waterhouse was born in 1849 in Rome to English artists William and Isabela. The artist entered the Royal Academy schools in 1870 and in 1874 Waterhouse's classical painting Sleep and His Half-Brother Death appeared in the Academy's Summer Exhibition. Waterhouse, like the Pre-Raphaelites, chose to illustrate Keats, Shakespeare and Tennyson, but also found inspiration in classical mythology.

This retrospective features most of the paintings that made Waterhouse one of the most popular and critically acclaimed artists of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. The exhibition explores the idea of Waterhouse as a "belated" Pre-Raphaelite.

The Lady of Shalott (1888) depicts Elaine of Astolat, a figure in Arthurian legend, who dies of unrequited love for Lancelot. Waterhouse created two more versions of the painting in 1894 and 1916. It illustrates these lines by Alfred Lord Tennyson:

And down the river's dim expanse / Like some bold seer in a trance, / Seeing all his own mischance— / With a glassy countenance / Did she look to Camelot. / And at the closing of the day / She loosed the chain, and down she lay; / The broad stream bore her far away...

Also on display is Ophelia (1888), one of the artist's favourite subjects. Waterhouse may have found inspiration in John Everett Millais’s Ophelia (1851-52). Two more versions followed in 1894 and 1909/10 and Waterhouse had planned another, but because of illness he did not complete the series.

His painting of St. Eulalia, a Christian Martyr, led to his election as an Associate Member of the Royal Academy. Full membership followed in 1895 and Waterhouse submitted A Mermaid (1900) as his Diploma Work.

Other highlights include Hylas and the Nymphs (1896), St Cecilia (1895) and Circe Invidiosa: Circe Poisoning the Sea (1892).

A full-colour 237-page catalogue accompanies the exhibition. Peter Trippi, the Waterhouse biographer, and other leading art historians, outline the artist's place in the history of British art. The publication includes 180 illustrations.

This exhibition, which has already been on display at Groninger Museum in The Netherlands, will be on view at the Royal Academy of Arts from 27th June to 13th September 2009. Further details can be obtained from the Royal Academy of Arts.

The show will move to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada where it will be on show from 1st October 2009 – 7th February 2010.

The copyright of the article J. W. Waterhouse – The Modern Pre-Raphaelite in Traveling Art Exhibits is owned by Frances Spiegel. Permission to republish J. W. Waterhouse – The Modern Pre-Raphaelite in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.