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 :. | A Priestess | A Fair Reflection | A Classical Beauty In Profile | At the Thermae | Summer Flowers |
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book illuminator, draughtsman, architectural decorator and garden designer. English c.1815-1897 was a pre-raphaelite landscape artist, book illuminator and draughtsman. He was probably born in Derbyshire. Edward had lived in London where he had been engaged to the daughter of William and Mary Howitt. Edward visited Australia and stayed initially with Godfrey Howitt. In 1856, the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne were redesigned and Edward la Trobe Bateman was engaged to do the designs.
Loo, Jacob van
Flemish Baroque Era Painter, 1614-1670 was a Dutch painter and popularized around 1650 a close-focus concert on a loggia or terrace. So Van Loo became known for his conversation groupings with a subtle color palette, and according to Arnold Houbraken famous for his nudes. He was the founder of the Van Loo family of painters. Van Loo was born in Zeeland in the Dutch Republic. His father might have been a notary, but most time he is regarded as the son of a painter, Jan van Loo, who trained him. (As part of the city archives in Sluis have been destroyed during World War II it is impossible now to make out what is true). His early influences include Thomas de Keyser and Jacob Adriaensz Backer. In 1642, Jacob moved to Amsterdam, where his contemporaries included Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Bartholomeus van der Helst. In 1643 he married the sister of the painter Martinus Lengele and had six children. They lived on Rozengracht, in the Jordaan and Eglon van der Neer became one of his pupils. In 1660, Van Loo fled the city after having fatally stabbed someone in his belly, during a fight in an inn. He was sentenced to death in absentia and was forever banned from the state of Holland. Van Loo settled in Paris, where he was admitted to the Acad??mie de peinture et de sculpture and where he died in 1670. Van Loo's work was done in the Baroque style, which had begun in Rome and which was becoming a Europe-wide phenomenon in this period. He was a major influence on Johannes Vermeer, when painting Diana and Her Companions. He painted portraits of Johan Huydecoper van Maarssenveen, his wife, his sister Leonara Huydecoper, married to Jan J.