John William Godward

206 artworks

Victorian Neoclassical, Olympian Classical Revivalist painter

Born 8/9/1861 - Died 12/13/1922

{"Id":82,"Name":"John William Godward","Biography":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EReprinted below is an extract from the opening chapter of Dr Vern Swanson\u0027s landmark biography of the artist: \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2002/John_William_Godward/godward1.asp\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EJohn William Godward: The Eclipse of Classicism\u003C/a\u003E. The above link will take you to the entire text of the book, illustrated online from works in the ARC Museum.\u003C/strong\u003E\u003Cbr /\u003E\u003Cbr /\u003EThe serene beauty and astonishing technical execution of John William Godward\u0027s paintings contradict the fact that this important artist has received virtually no critical acclaim or art historical recognition. We know little about this artist\u0027s private life, which is not betrayed by his art. Melancholy, kindly, reclusive, handsome, talented and shy, J. W. Godward\u0027s life is still a mystery, a censored book, protected by himself and sealed by his family. Unlike most Olympian Classicists before him, he preferred anonymity and privacy.\u003Cbr /\u003E\u003Cbr /\u003EIgnored by the quickly changing tastes of the art critics, Godward became the climatic figure of English classical-subject painting as this genre itself shriveled under the blaze of the 20th century avant-garde. He was the best of the last great European painters to straight-forwardly embrace classical Greece and Rome in their art. Herein lies his significance to art history. With him and his colleagues, we see the nightfall of five hundred years of Classical subject painting in Western art. \u003Cbr /\u003E\u003Cbr /\u003EDesperately idealistic, Godward was one of those artists, who at first glance, we think we fathom completely. Since he is often dismissed with the inadequate catch phrases: an Alma-Tadema clone, a \u0022too late\u0022 Classicist, a \u0022pedant of the brush\u0022, a \u0022pot-boiler\u0022 or merely the painter of an insipid world of languorous women on marble benches, no serious study of his art has been undertaken. And because we are a society that honors \u0022firsts\u0022 rather than \u0022lasts\u0022 few art historians have examined the demise of Classical subject-painting, of which Godward is a chief exemplar. All of these judgements, in the light of historical distance, can be seen as unjust prejudices.\u003Cbr /\u003E\u003Cbr /\u003EIn Godward\u0027s work we see the final summation of half a millennium of Classical antique influence on Western painting. Next to Christianity it was by far the greatest outside influence on European painting. It vanished during Godward\u0027s generation -- killed, as it were, by contemporary nihilistic philosophies. While pointed references to Classicism continued, even unto today, the idealistic rhetoric accompanying it has died. During a period of rapidly declining interest in Greco-Roman antiquity courageous artists from the 19th century continued, against all odds, in this field for the first third of the 20th century ...\u003C/p\u003E\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C/p\u003E","Awards":null,"HasAlbums":false,"HasPortraits":true,"HasRelationships":false,"HasArticles":true,"HasDepictedPlaces":false,"HasLetters":false,"HasLibraryItems":true,"HasProducts":true,"HasSignatures":false,"HasVideos":false,"HasMapLocations":true,"TotalArtworks":206}

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The Time of Roses

1916

Oil on canvas

76.2 x 76.2 cms | 30 x 30 ins

John William Godward

Credit: Fred Ross

Sweet Nothings

The Priestess

Pleasant Idleness

The Thinker

The Love Letter

A Classical Maiden