John William Godward
John William Godward was an English painter from the end of the Neo-Classicist era. He was a protégé of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, but his style of painting fell out of favor with the rise of Modern art. He died of suicide at the age of 61 and is said to have written in his suicide note that "the world is not big enough for [both] myself and a Picasso."
The settings used by this artist were typical of Ancient Rome and Greece. He would study the architecture of these two periods in depth in order to ensure his depictions were accurate. Godward would generally use these marble features as background elements, with classically dressed woman placed in the foreground. Also, there are some semi-nude and fully nude figures included in his oeuvre. In such painting, the meticulous research of detail was crucial. Lawrence Alma-Tadema, the most famous of Victorian painters was also an archaeologist; he attended historical sites and collected artifacts he later used in his paintings. Godward also studied such details as architecture and dress, to ensure that his works bore the stamp of authenticity.
P.S. Did you know that one of the most famous paintings by Lawrence Alma-Tadema has a gruesome story behind it?
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