John William Waterhouse is remembered for work the next generation could not ignore.
The record lists John William Waterhouse as English painter (1849–1917).
John William Waterhouse was born at Rome in 1849. His recorded nationality is Italy. He trained at Royal Academy of Arts.
The nineteenth century broke the academy's authority: independent exhibitions, dealers and the beginnings of modernism.
He worked as painter and architectural drafter.
His recorded movement is pre-raphaelite brotherhood and neo-pompeian.
Among his best-known works are The Lady of Shalott, Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses and Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May. A painting outlives the argument about it, which is the only durable form of an artistic reputation.
That the work was made in Italy shaped it: artistic traditions, academies and the galleries that decide what is seen have never been evenly distributed.
John William Waterhouse died in 1917, aged 68. The work remains, hanging in collections that outlived both the artist and the market that first priced it.
Achievements
- Notable work: The Lady of Shalott
- Notable work: Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses
- Notable work: Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May
- Notable work: Sleep and his Half-brother Death
- Movement: Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and neo-Pompeian
