John William Waterhouse
Heir to the Pre-Raphaelites.
John William Waterhouse painted a generation after the Brotherhood but took up its subjects: the Lady of Shalott, Ophelia and mermaids. He combined Pre-Raphaelite poetry with a freer, more painterly technique.
John William Waterhouse was born in Rome in 1849, where his parents worked as painters. The family moved to London when he was small. He helped in his father's studio and entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1870. His early paintings showed scenes from antiquity, influenced by Lawrence Alma-Tadema and his precise rendering of marble and historical settings.
In the 1880s he found his own path. Saint Eulalia of 1885 and The Magic Circle of 1886, both in Tate Britain, attracted attention. His best-known work, The Lady of Shalott of 1888, also in Tate Britain, is based on Tennyson's poem and shows a young woman in a boat drifting towards her fate. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1895.
Waterhouse took up the Pre-Raphaelites' subjects: Ophelia, mermaids, sorceresses and nymphs from myth and poetry. Technically, however, he differs from them. He painted more freely, with visible brushstrokes and a treatment of light and nature that owes more to Impressionism. His female figures often share similar features, and there has been speculation about which models he used, though in several cases this remains uncertain.
Hylas and the Nymphs of 1896, in Manchester Art Gallery, is one of his best-known pictures. In 2018 the gallery temporarily took it down to prompt discussion of how women are depicted in art, which led to a lively debate. Other well-known works are Echo and Narcissus of 1903 in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and several versions of Ophelia.
Waterhouse was married to the painter Esther Kenworthy. The couple had no children. He led a retiring life and died of cancer in 1917. After his death he fell into obscurity as modernism took over, but from the 1970s he became very popular again. His pictures are sold today as posters and postcards and have influenced fantasy illustration, film and fashion.