John William Waterhouse PreRaphaelite

1
John William WaterhousePre-Raphaelite
2
Boraeus
Pre-Raphaelite Movement

• The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed by a
  group of British painters and poets in 1848.
• Their intention was to reform art, rejecting the
  very stylized poses that were adopted by painters
  during the Renaissance.
• Their early doctrines were
• To have genuine ideas to express
• To study Nature attentively, so as to know how to
  express their genuine ideas
• To sympathize with what is direct and serious and
  heartfelt in previous art, to the exclusion of
  what is conventional and self-parodying and
  learned by rote
• And, most indispensable of all, to produce
  thoroughly good pictures and statues
• Some Pre-Raphaelites became very interested in
  realism, and extreme devotion to detail.
• Do you think that this painting follows the
  doctrines of the Brotherhood? Why or why not?

3
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
John William Waterhouse
John William Waterhouse was born on April 6, 1849
in Rome, Italy to two English painters. The
family returned to England in the late 1850s.
As a child, Waterhouse assisted his father in art
studio. It was during this time that Waterhouse
became a painter. Waterhouse went on to paint
well over 200 paintings depicting classical
mythology, historical and literary subjects,
particularly those of Roman mythology and classic
English poets such as Keats and Tennyson.
Waterhouse was appreciated as an artist in his
own time. He was both famous and well-off
financially in his lifetime. This painting is
based on a poem of the same name by John Keats.
The title means, The Beautiful Woman without
Mercy. The poem tells the story of a knight who
meets a beautiful woman in the woods. He falls
in love with her. Too late, he discovers that
she is Death. He now roams the hillside telling
his tragic tale. What is happening in this
painting? How does Waterhouse use nature to make
the painting better?
4
Windflowers

• What is going on in this painting?
• How does Waterhouse use nature in this painting?
• The Romantic Movement in art and literature
  stressed strong emotion as well as the beauty and
  power of Nature.
• Waterhouses paintings are often called Romantic,
  What do you think that means in terms of the
  style and subject of a painting?
• Do you think that this painting is romantic?
• Think about how the women are dressed in
  Waterhouses paintings as compared to how real
  women dressed in the late 1800s with corsets,
  bustles, parasols boots.
• Why do you think Waterhouse painted women the way
  that he did?

5
Pandora

• Waterhouse frequently painted figures from Greek
  mythology.
• In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman.
  The gods gave her a box filled with all possible
  evils. When Pandora opened the box, all of the
  evils were released into the world. All that
  remained in the box was hope.
• If you didnt know the title of this painting,
  how might you discern its subject. What clues
  has the artist given you?
• How does Waterhouse use color in this painting?
  Where is your eye drawn to look?
• What do you think of his use of Nature in this
  painting?

6
Ophelia by the Pond

• This is one of three paintings Waterhouse made of
  Ophelia.
• Ophelia is a tragic character from Shakespeares
  Hamlet. In brief, Ophelia loves Hamlet. Her
  father forbids her love. She goes mad. In her
  madness, she goes into woods and falls from a
  willow tree into a pond and drowns.
• This painting is likely of Ophelia on the day of
  her death.
• What part does Nature play in this painting?
• Again, there is something romantic about
  forbidden love and about a tragic figure. Do you
  think the romantic notions surrounding Ophelia
  made her interesting to Waterhouse? Is she
  interesting to you?