J.W. Waterhouse

Hello mriccimo_npwny,

I no expert on Waterhouse but here's a few ideas.

Waterhouse was born in Rome and spent, I think, the first 5 years of his life there.This was obviously and influence on him particularly in his earlier works where many of his paintings were set within Roman settings, St Eulalia being an obvious example. If I remember correctly as well, it was from Rome that he developed a love for mythology which was to be a part of his work for the rest of his life, Ovid and Homer being particular sources of information. Another influence on his work, I expect, must have been the death of two of his siblings as well as his mother. Death was often prevalent in Nino's work as with The Lady of Shalott, Ophelia and Hylas and the Nymphs and those three examples also show, for me, Waterhouse's greatest trait and that is his eye for, and desire to paint, beauty. I also think the Romantic ideals of the Pre-Raphaelites was a big influence.

As a direct answer to your question "why John Williams Waterhouse was inspired to paint what he did", I could only guess that it was simply a strong desire to express beauty, be it feminine beauty or beauty in nature - usually a mixture of both - within a mythological or Romantic narrative.

Hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck with your paper!

Kind regards,

Jim