Some of the great impressionists used to walk about with a frame which they tried on various aspects of the landscape before choosing the subject for their painting. So too the biographer should walk about, frame in hand, and the choice of subject is perhaps the most important thing of all for him. There are lives which have a natural beauty,which, either by chance or by some force inherent in their being, are somehow constructed like spontaneous works of art.

In recent years John William Waterhouse has been recognised as one of the most popular Victorian artists and many of his paintings, such as The Lady

Shallot, Hylas and the Nymphs and Ophelia, have become icons of femininity recognised the world ove,: With their compelfing composition, glowing colour and Impressionist-inflected technique, these paintings are admired for their beauty, yet at the same time they have the power to transport the viewer into a romantic world of myth and legend.

Waterhouse was sixty-eight when he died and much of his work had been inspired by classic themes chosen from the Iliad and Odyssey, but the Homeric battles which raged in 'No Man's Land' as he lay dying at St. John's Wood were to overturn all the values and assumptions of that late Victorian world in which he had grown up and won fame, and make much of the work which he and his contemporaries had produced suddenly look hopelessly quaint and old-fashioned.

Waterhouse's work became familiar enough from reproductions, but The Lady of Shalott, Consulting the Oracle, The Magic Circle, and St. Eulalia, the painting which secured Waterhouse his election as an Associate of the Royal Academy (A.R.A.) in 1885, were stored away in the basement of the Tate Gallery, whilst much of his work was scattered around in provincial galleries, more often than not in the north, when it was not in Australia or Canada like Hylas and the Nymphs.

His paintings are so good, however, that we felt it would be worthwhile to look into his life and work and see what we made of it. We have found our labours well rewarded and hope that by the time they reach the end of this book readers will agree that Waterhouse's enthusiastic patrons were not misguided in their judgements of his work, and their purchases.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE:

THE ARTISTIC INHERITANCE OF J. W. WATERHOUSE, R.A.

CHAPTER TWO:

ALMA-TADEMA: A MAJOR EARLY INFLUENCE

CHAPTER THREE:

TRAVEL AND STUDY IN ITALY: 1876--83

CHAPTER FOUR:

MARRIAGE AND LIFE AT PRIMROSE HILL STUDIOS: 1883--1900

CHAPTER FIVE:

THE LATER YEARS AT ST. JOHN'S WOOD: 1900--17

CHAPTER SIX:

a MIND SATURATED WITH CLASSICAL IMAGERY

CHAPTER SEVEN:

THE PERVASIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PRE-RAPHAELITES

CHAPTER EIGHT:

FRIENDS AND PATRONS

CHAPTER NINE:

WATERHOUSE VACATES HIS ENCHANTED GARDEN

CHAPTER TEN:

HIS GARDEN REDISCOVERED

APPENDICES

APPENDIX i

PAINTINGS BY J. W. WATERHOUSE MENTIONED

IN THE TEXT AND NOW IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

APPENDIX II

WORKS EXHIBITED BY J. W. WATERHOUSE AT THE

ROYAL ACADEMY 1874--1917

APPENDIX III

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX