“Juliet/The Blue Necklace”
This wistful oil on canvas painting is by the English Victorian artist, John William Waterhouse, from 1898. It is titled “Juliet/The Blue Necklace”.
This painting depicts Juliet, half of the namesake in William Shakespeare’s famous play, Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare was enormously popular during the Victorian Era and Waterhouse painted many of Shakespeare’s more famous women characters including Ophelia from Hamlet and Miranda from The Tempest.
In this piece, Waterhouse paints Juliet in profile harking back to Italian portraiture of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Though the play actually takes place in Verona, Italy, Waterhouse depicts Juliet as walking along one of the canal streets in Venice, Italy. As she walks, she idly grasps her blue necklace. Waterhouse first exhibited “Juliet/The Blue Necklace” in London, England, at the New Gallery in 1898. It was first owned by Sir Frederick M. Fry, who owned several of Waterhouse’s paintings.
Shakespeare wrote this tragedy early on in his career in 1597 during the Elizabethan era when the arts flourished in England. Though the story is well-known to most, here is a brief synopsis.
In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet fall in love at a masquerade, only to find out that they are the children of rival families who have been mortal enemies for generations. Unable to be together, Romeo and Juliet secretly elope. Shortly after, Romeo’s best friend, Mercutio, is murdered in an altercation by Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt. In the heat of the moment, Romeo murders Tybalt.
Meanwhile, Juliet’s family arranges for her to marry Paris, another gentleman. A distraught Juliet takes a sleeping draught and fakes her own death, while dispatching a letter to Romeo that tells of her plans. The messenger misses Romeo, who finds out that Juliet is “dead” and kills himself. After Juliet wakes up to find her lover dead beside her, she takes her own life.
“Juliet/The Blue Necklace” is currently in a private collection.
For more on John William Waterhouse, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
