But his forte, it seems to me, is the downstage figure distanced from a group. Waterhouse's trademark is this single white female: Ophelia, Circe, Ariadne, Tennyson's Mariana, forlorn, melancholy, always alone. The paint imitates what it describes - dust sparking into light - with conspicuous flair.
The sorceress in The Magic Circle, a touch of Corot blue in her dress against a misty grey landscape of loose, translucent brushstrokes, is drawing an incandescent circle in the earth. But everything he gets from French contemporary art seems to cancel out the tendency to academic precision in any case. It is true that the young Waterhouse is not so technically adept his watered silk sometimes has an unfortunate resemblance to marble and vice versa.
You may laugh, but these are persuasively seductive images of relaxation. And in two separate versions of Sweet Doing Nothing he does it again, once with a feather lifting idly on the breeze and then again with a woman sitting so still that a dove has more or less taken her for furniture and settled on her bed. A group of pilgrims to the temple of the Roman god of medicine are riveted by what can only be described as absolutely nothing: a faint curl of smoke in the dead centre of the painting what a trick to pull off. Waterhouse was quite a risk-taker in the early years. At a distance, a bunch of courtiers stoop and grovel, casting a doleful glance at the object of their frustrated ambitions, a sight gag clinched by the soldier in the middle, casting a subversive eye on the birds. The Roman ruler is slumped in his throne, an enormous salver of what might be millet in his lap, feeding the birds that flock around him in a scene out of Mary Poppins. Take a painting like The Favourites of the Emperor Honorius, from 1883. Why then mount a show? It is enough to incite anyone to discover his virtues.Īnd they are there, albeit in unexpected places. Even at the Royal Academy the wall-texts are a touch apologetic, quoting Ezra Pound's scornful remark that while Waterhouse's paintings were beautiful, they do not admit one to a deeper knowledge. A favourite with Victorian soap and sugar barons, he has more recently been snapped up by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and some of his characters are certainly fit for a song. Our canvas prints actually look BETTER in real life.In our time Waterhouse has become an Athena poster: lithe virgins up to their breasts in cool water, never mind the myth. Our actual canvases may slightly differ from the pictures shown, as every item that we sell is created especially for you. Please note that our standard processing time is 3-5 days.
Our canvas prints are odorless and stable to UV-radiation. Our high quality images are environmentally friendly printed on museum grade canvas, with high quality inks that will last for over 200 years. Other sizes than listed in our drop-down menu available upon request! Sizes available (Height x Width) - Rolled in Tube: Sizes available (Height x Width) - Ready to Hang: John William Waterhouse : The Magic Circle (1886) Canvas Gallery Wrapped Giclee Wall Art Print (D6040)Ĭanvas Print, gallery wrapped (mirrored edges) on 2cm depth pine wooden frame.ġ Panel (photo 2) or 3 panel (triptych, photo 3).
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