English 1861-1922 Godward was a Victorian Neo-classicist, and therefore a follower in theory of Frederic Leighton. However, he is more closely allied stylistically to Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, with whom he shared a penchant for the rendering of Classical architecture, in particular, static landscape features constructed from marble. The vast majority of Godward's extant images feature women in Classical dress, posed against these landscape features, though there are some semi-nude and fully nude figures included in his oeuvre (a notable example being In The Tepidarium (1913), a title shared with a controversial Alma-Tadema painting of the same subject that resides in the Lady Lever Art Gallery). The titles reflect Godward's source of inspiration: Classical civilisation, most notably that of Ancient Rome (again a subject binding Godward closely to Alma-Tadema artistically), though Ancient Greece sometimes features, thus providing artistic ties, albeit of a more limited extent, with Leighton. Given that Classical scholarship was more widespread among the potential audience for his paintings during his lifetime than in the present day, meticulous research of detail was important in order to attain a standing as an artist in this genre. Alma-Tadema was, as well as a painter, an archaeologist who attended historical sites and collected artefacts that were later used in his paintings: Godward, too, studied such details as architecture and dress, in order to ensure that his works bore the stamp of authenticity. In addition, Godward painstakingly and meticulously rendered those other important features in his paintings, animal skins (the paintings Noon Day Rest (1910) and A Cool Retreat (1910) contain superb examples of such rendition) and wild flowers (Nerissa (1906), illustrated above, and Summer Flowers (1903) are again excellent examples of this). The appearance of beautiful women in studied poses in so many of Godward's canvases causes many newcomers to his works to categorise him mistakenly as being Pre-Raphaelite, particularly as his palette is often a vibrantly colourful one. However, the choice of subject matter (ancient civilisation versus, for example, Arthurian legend) is more properly that of the Victorian Neoclassicist: however, it is appropriate to comment that in common with numerous painters contemporary with him, Godward was a 'High Victorian Dreamer', producing beautiful images of a world which, it must be said, was idealised and romanticised, and which in the case of both Godward and Alma-Tadema came to be criticised as a world-view of 'Victorians in togas'.  Related Paintings of John William Godward :. | The Ring | Ionian Dancing Girl | Tranquillity | Yes or No | Le Billet Doux |
Related Artists:
Richard Bergh
1858?C1919,Painter, writer and museum director, son of Edvard Bergh. He studied in Stockholm, first at the art school of Edvard Pers?us (1841-90) and from 1878 to 1881 at the Konstakademi, where he met Nils Kreuger and Karl Nordstrem. His early work consists mainly of academically treated scenes from Swedish history and legend. In 1881 he left for France, studying in Paris with Jean-Paul Laurens and at the Academie Colarossi (1881-4); he made his debut at the Salon of 1883. In 1885, with Ernst Josephson and other members of the Scandinavian artists' colonies in Paris and Grez-sur-Loing, he became one of the main promoters of the Opponenterna, a movement of protest against the conservative attitudes of the Konstakademi; the following year this group formed the Konstnersferbund (Artists' Union), of which Bergh was a leading member throughout his life.
Jean-Simon Fournier
(1791-1799 ) - Painter
Maurer, Alfred Henry
American Painter, 1868-1932 American painter. He studied at the National Academy of Design, New York, in 1884 and briefly at the Acad?mie Julian, Paris, during 1897. He received critical success with academic paintings of single female figures in interiors and genre scenes of caf? society, which reflected the influence of the work of James Abbott McNeill Whistler and William Merritt Chase, for example At the Caf? (c. 1905; St Petersburg, Hermitage). His long residence in Paris from 1897, his participation in various independent salons and his association with Leo and Gertrude Stein led to his interest in avant-garde art. He may have been one of a group of Americans who studied briefly with Henri Matisse. By 1907 he was producing vigorously painted Fauvist landscapes, such as Landscape with Red Tree