J.W. Waterhouse

Hi Jimma

I've been working on this and it isn't easy, so pardon my assumptions in this answer.

Sketchley's article on JW refers to the figure as a youth. She then goes on in the same paragraph to discuss JWs use of water and runs into Hylas and the Nymphs and refers to the nymphs as both nymphs and niades. Given that Sketchley wrote with the participation of JW I think it most likely that he intended the figure to represent a male youth, not Hylas or a faun.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Neil

Thanks for the reply, Neil. I think it's a youth also. Faun's are goat-legged creatures as far as I'm aware and, though I'm no expert on Greek mythology, I'm not privy to how the image in A Naiad relates entirely to Hylas' story. I did find this info from a website that was interesting:

It has also been told that Hylas, when he went to fetch water with a pitcher of bronze in hand for the evening meal, came to the spring called Pegae. They said that the dances of the nymphs were then just being held when he arrived, and that a naiad, who some call Dryope, was just rising from the spring. It was night, for they tell that the full moon beams smote Hylas' face. This naiad, it is told, fell immediately in love with Hylas, and when he dipped the pitcher in the stream, she laid one arm around his neck, yearning to kiss him, and with her other hand she drew him down and plunged him into the water.

Here's the link to the website if you want to read more abut Hylas. I would say though that the lack of a pitcher in A Naiad goes a long way in excluding the sleeping figure as Hylas. I guess we'll never know.

Kind regards,

Jim

Hi Jimma

Sketchley's article is clear that JW intended the painting to be without attachment to a specific story. I'll send over a copy of the paragraphs so you can form your own conclusions.

That is agreat visual image you described, it might make a good painting some day.

Cheers
neil

Thanks Neil, I'll look forward to reading it :)

Kind regards,

Jim

Sorry Jimma forgot to send (busy writing critiques on local exhibitions and finishing some new works). Para below is a quote from Sketchley, hope is makes sense, she can be a touch bewildering.

'A Naiad' shown at the New Gallery in 1893, fortells a finer rendering of a strain of nature-poetry which, according as we read it, is profound or fanciful: the embodiment of the reflecting quality of water in soulless woman creatures, longing for union with the human substance of which they are, as it were, the shadows. That 'poesy' of the water element is painted in 'Hylas and the Nymphs', one of the painters lovliest imageries. The incident is from the tales of the Argonauts, where young Hylas is represented as going to draw water for his fellows, and enticed by away by Naiads. With faces still as the sheltered surface of their pool, and cool, strange eyes of desire, these nymphs seem really 'native and endued' to the waters as Hylas, ardent in his youth, is to the earth. As simply as the water-lilies, their namesakes in Latin, they draw their life from the water. The flowers are hardly more white than their bodies, gleaming beneath the still green waters, rising from the surface so like flowers, with not a movement to ripple the stillness.

Another thing I've just found in The Studio V8. 'A Hamadryad' was exhibited at Newlyn in 1896 under the title 'Faun and Hamadryad'. If you have a look at this painting you can see how JW represented a Faun (at the base of the tree).

Cheers
Neil