John william godward biography of william hill
Dolce far Niente or Sweet Nothings, 1904, Oil on Canvas
There is nothing that can take the real joy out of living so thoroughly as one’s loved ones. John William Godward was unlucky enough to be born into a family of blue-nosed fools, the kind of snooty cretins who live to minify the aspirations of their children. Despite his considerable success in England’s art world (exhibits at the Royal Academy, owned his own studios, member of the Royal Institute of the British Arts) his banker family felt he had tarnished their reputation by daring to be an artist. By the time he was well away in his career they had gone so far as to remove his image from family pictures to disassociate themselves from this hoodlum-artist, thug of a son.
As the comedians would say, “Tough room.”
By 1908 he pretty much withdrew from British society altogether and though there are those who wonder why, his reasons seem self-evident to me.
Some folks associate his style with Leighton’s and it is true they share a fondness for those “Golden Mean” horizon pictures and classical subjects. But their color palette is very different, and Godward was much more into marble walls, exotic pelts, and women than Leighton.
The Tambourine Girl, 1905, Oil on Canvas, 114.5 x 76cm, Private Collection
His work is beautiful and it is easy to fall into the trap of over-analyzing some of his choices based on what we know of his personal life. I confess to feeling sorry for him and sensing an artificial limiting of expression in his art, but that is very likely my own imagination at work.
Ionian Dancing Girl, 1902, Oil on Canvas, 137 x 84cm, Collection of William O. Brisben
Yet, I cannot help but wonder. Of these two women with tambourines there is no doubt in my mind of which is superior. Godward never painted anything that was bad, but he did paint a good many pieces which might as well have been illustrations for postcards. Yet there was fire in him, just the same. It takes strength and determina
John William Godward, RBA (British, 1861-1922)
Dolce far niente
signed and dated 'J.W.GODWARD.'07' (lower left)
oil on canvas
51.4 x 76.2cm (20 1/4 x 30in).
Footnotes
We are grateful to Dr. Vern Swanson for his assistance in cataloguing this lot, which will be included in his forthcoming updated John William Godward catalogue raisonné, currently in preparation. "For optimum view by mobile phone or other hand-held device, please click on the 'Text-Only' version at the bottom of this page" While researching my family tree, (see, 'My Ramus Family Tree', on the side bar on this site), I discovered a great deal of unexpected links to the art world through the late Victorian, and Edwardian era, and from there, connections to what appeared to be the beating heart of a world rushing towards technological advancement, with London at its epicentre. Through my Great Grandfather, Henry Ramus, I have found myself unearthing a story which emanated outwards from the artist, John William Godward, via Christies auction rooms, and one of the greatest art dealers, William Walker Sampson, (who also happened to be Henry’s business partner), then on to some of the biggest names in the world of art, literature, entertainment, and industry. From Gaiety girls, and Stage Door Johnnies, to the old money of Europe against the new money of America, it seems that life as we know it now, with oligarchs, their fortunes, and their ambition to use that wealth to secure some kind of immortality through art collections, little has changed in the last hundred years or so. The difference is in the setting, but the human aspect seems curiously unchanged. . What is here is the tip of an iceberg, it spreads so far and wide, encompassing art, photography, literature, the birth of motor cars, aircraft, engine technology, travel in all its forms. It brings characters that came from nowhere, and found themselves mixing with royalty, as well as the super rich magnates from America. Sampson, who had been born illegitimately in Tynemouth, adopted son of a seaman, sold newspapers on the streets outside Newcastle railway station. He saw his first gallery on a school trip to Cragside, Northumberland, there he skipped the feast laid out for th Showing 9,402 results for John William Godward
Provenance
Thomas Mclean, London (19 March 1907).
Miss Sarah Darnell of 161 Stamford Hill, North London; Sale, Christie's, London, 15 March 1925, lot 57.
W. W. Sampson, London.
Private collection, UK.
Literature
McLean letter to Godward 19 March 1907 (Milo-Turner collection).
E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Paris, 1976, VI, p. 80.
Vern G. Swanson, John William Godward, The Eclipse of Classicism, 1997, p. 218, no. 2, as Dolce far niente (Girl with a bunch of grapes).
It was the gospel of beauty, perfection, tradition and peace that Godward .... felt was most profoundly transmitted through the classical subject.
(Vern Swanson, Godward and the Death of Greco-Roman Painting, Published in the Art Renewal Centre, January 2000)
The great tragedy of John William Godward's story is that such a talented and astute artist-at times a rival to Alma-Tadema in his depictions of classical beauty- should feel so out of kilter with the world around him, that his art had become so anachronistic, that he took his own life, aged 61, in 1922.
By then, many of the great exponents of this classical tradition had already gone. Alma-Tadema died in 1912, Waterhouse in 1917, and Sir Edward John Poynter, who as President of the Royal Academy was a great and influential champion of classical painting, died in 1919. As Christopher Wood observes, 'by the 1920s, the rule of Bloomsbury had begun. All Victorian painting was denounced as absurd, irrelevant, and totally lacking in significant form... for a clas The Ring Master & John William Godward
The Ring Master & John William Godward
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