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 Souvenir | In the Tepidarium | Priestess | Study of Campaspe | The Jewel Casket |
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William Henry Knight
(26 September 1823 - 31 July 1863) was an English portrait and genre painter. Knight was born in Newbury, Berkshire where his father, John Knight, was a schoolmaster. He was to become a solicitor, but gave up his law studies after two of his paintings were accepted by the annual exhibition of the Society of British Artists. He moved to London in 1855, taking lodgings in Kennington Road, Lambeth, and supporting himself by drawing crayon portraits while studying in the British Museum and in the schools of the Royal Academy.
Jacob Maris
(August 25, 1837, The Hague - August 7, 1899, Karlsbad) was a Dutch painter, who with his brothers Willem and Matthijs belonged to what has come to be known as the Hague School of painters. Maris studied at the Antwerp Academy, and subsequently in Hubertus van Hove's studio during a stay in Paris from 1865 till 1871. He returned to Holland when the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and died there in August 1899. Though he painted, especially in early life, domestic scenes and interiors invested with deeply sympathetic feeling, it is as a landscape painter that Maris excelled. He was the painter of bridges and windmills, of old quays, massive towers, and level banks; even more was he the painter of water, and misty skies, and chasing clouds. In all his works, whether in water or oil color, and in his etchings, the subject is always subordinate to the effect. His art is suggestive rather than decorative, and his force does not seem to depend on any preconceived method, such as a synthetical treatment of form or gradations of tone. And yet, though his means appear so simple, the artist's mind seems to communicate with the spectator's by directness of pictorial instinct, and we have only to observe the admirable balance of composition and truthful perspective to understand the sure knowledge of his business that underlies such purely impressionist handling.
johan krouthen
född 2 november 1858, död i december 1932, var en svensk idealistisk konstnär. Krouthen föddes i Linköping och var son till handlaren Conrad Krouthen och Hilda Åberg. Släkten Krouthen kom från Norrköping och flera generationer hade arbetat som tenngjutare. Familjenamnet Krut ändrades genom att varubeteckningen Krut-tenn förfranskades till Krouthen. Conrad Krouthen kom till Linköping 1850 och startade en manufakturaffär vid Stora torget. Affären gick bra och 1857 kunde han gifta sig med sömmerskan Hilda Åberg. Krouthen kunde växa upp i ett välmående hem och han fick börja skolan på läroverket i Linköping. Vid 14 års ålder slutade han skolan och började arbeta åt fotografen och målaren Svante Leonard Rydholm som hade en atelje vid St. Larsplan. Krouthen fick lära sig grunderna i både målning och fotografering och vid 16 års ålder började han på Konstakademiens principskola i Stockholm 1875. Den treåriga utbildningen innebar att eleverna fick lära sig att rita av klot och profiler, djur och växter. Efter de tre åren fick Krouthen fortsätta vid akademin. I kursen "Lägre antiken" fick eleverna rita av gipsmodeller, i "Högre antiken" teckna efter levande model och i "Landskapsskolan" fick eleverna måla landskap. Under studietiden sökte sig många elever utanför skolan och Krouthen lärde känna konstnären Edvard Perseus. Perseus var kritisk till utbildningen på akademin och tog med sina elever bland annat till Mariefred och Gripsholms slott för att måla av naturen.