John William Godward
John William Godward was an English Neoclassical artist from who lived from 1861 to 1922. He studied under artists such as Frederic Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema. His more vibrant color palette and overall style often gets him confused with Pre-Raphaelites, but he actually painted in the Neoclassical style. He was interested in recreating idealistic scenes of Classical Rome.
Godward had initially actually studied architecture under contemporary artist, William Clarke Wontner‘s father. The two artists formed a life-long friendship and provided artistic support and inspiration for each other. The favorite subjects for Godward were women in classical dress lounging about with an air of melancholy in a Classic Roman structure, usually surrounded by items of fur or marble. Since Godward was a classical scholar, he did a lot of research on architectural styles and period clothing to give his paintings more authenticity. He had a lot of wealthy patrons including other Victorian era scholars of the Classic age and newly rich people who wanted to build their art collections.
Godward was disowned by his family after he moved to Italy with one of his models and he was actually physically cut out from all their photographs. He had a successful career early on and regularly had pieces exhibited at the Royal Academy in London with positive public reception. However, as art is wont to do, the styles and schools of thought soon changed with the advent of modern artists such as Pablo Picasso.
For someone who created such beautiful works, Godward had a tragic end. At 61 years of age, he committed suicide, leaving a note that read “the world is not big enough for myself and Picasso”. Godward’s family, after already disproving of his career choice, burned all his personal papers and photographs after the disgrace of his suicide. He has largely been forgotten in the annals of art history and much of his life remains a mystery.
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