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 Old, Old Story | A Souvenir | A Pompeian Lady | By the Wayside | Venus at the Bath |
Related Artists:
Jan Breughel
painted Paradise in ca. 1620
Jakub Schikaneder
(February 27, 1855, Prague - November 15, 1924, Prague) was a Czech painter, known for his soft paintings of the outdoors, often lonely in mood. The National Gallery in Prague held an exhibition of his paintings from May 1998 until January 1999. He was descended from Urban Schikaneder, the elder brother of the librettist Emanuel Schikaneder.
Arthur Loureiro
Australian, 1853-1932,Portuguese painter. He was a naturalist painter. His early training was at the Academia de Belas-Artes, Oporto, and in 1876 he went to Rome where he became a pupil of Francisco Pradilla Ortiz. In Italy he devoted himself to landscape painting. He exhibited in Paris at the Exposition Universelle (1878) and in the Sociedade Promotora de Belas-Artes in Lisbon (1880). In 1879 he was given a scholarship to go to Paris, where he stayed from 1880 to 1883.