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John William Waterhouse

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"Contemporary Commentary" is an ongoing project which aims to gather together a selection of references to John William Waterhouse, first published in art journals, newspapers and books during Waterhouse's lifetime (1849-1917), along with private correspondence. The commentary reflects Waterhouse's early success in his chosen career as a painter; his election to membership of the Royal Academy; the reception of many of his paintings by art critics; and the eventual decline in his popularity as the changes in society caused by World War I made his art unfashionable.

For God's sake, desist, ye simple souls, from your fell purpose: ye know not what ye are about to do! Turn ye, turn ye, while there is yet time! Why will ye make fools of yourselves? Think of the Lion in the Path--the merciless brute called "Inaptitude," who must inevitably devour most of you if you proceed. And should "a favoured few" of you overcome the cruel Beast that bars the way to greatness, and struggle bravely on up the steep and thorny path which leads to the sacred Temple of Fame, beware then of the foul hag, "Disappointment," whose fangs are "sharper than a serpent's tooth" and who will drive you down step by step into the awful dungeons of Despair if ye have not indeed the keen blade of Genius in your hand, the stout helm of Endurance on your head, and the spotless shield of Truth upon your arm, and, at your very heart's core, the life-blood of a Noble Purpose.

Pause, O headstrong youth, ere ye enter the dark regions of Ignorance that encircle the eternal glory of the kingdom of Art, and ask yourselves, not once, or twice, or thrice only, but a thousand times, -- "Have I the needful weapons to fight through all my foes?"

(From a review of the 1876 Royal Academy Art Exhibition by A Rustic Ruskin*, at which a youthful Waterhouse exhibited a painting, on his way up the 'steep and thorny path' to the 'sacred Temple of Fame'.)

 

The Lady of Shalott, 1888Browse by Year:

1876

  • The Real and the Ideal, The Beautiful and the True; Or, Art in the Nineteenth Century, 1876

1884

  • The Photographic News, March 7, 1884
  • Academy Notes, May 1884

1885

  • Academy Notes, May 1885
  • The Art Journal, June 1885
  • Blackwood's Magazine, July 1885
  • The Art Journal, July 1885

1887

  • Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, 1887

1888

  • The Magazine of Art, 1888

1891

  • The Art Journal, May 1891
  • The Art Journal, June 1891

1892

  • Old Friends, Epistolary Parody by Andrew Lang, 1892
  • 'Art Notes', The Theatre, June 1, 1892

1893

  • Modern Painting by George Moore, 1893

1894

  • Tennyson and his Pre-Raphaelite Illustrators by George Somes Layard, 1894
  • Illustrated Catalogue of the National Gallery, Melbourne, Austrlia, 1894

1895

  • 'Art Notes', New York Times, February 10th, 1895
  • 'Art Notes', New York Times, June 23rd, 1895
  • Schools and Masters of Painting by A.G. Radcliffe, D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1895

1897

  • Private Correspondence: Kate Greenaway to John Ruskin, April 27, 1897

1899

  • Men and Women of the Time: A Dictionary of Contemporaries by Victor G. Plarr, 1899

1900

  • The Art Journal, March 1900

1904

  • The Pall Mall Magazine Extra: Pictures of 1904, 1904

1907

  • The History of Modern Painting, 1907

1908

  • Handbook of the Permanent Collection of Paintings, City of Manchester Art Gallery, 1908
  • Fifty Years of Modern Painting, John Ernest Phythian, 1908

1913

  • The International Studio, March 1913
  • The International Studio, July 1913

1917

  • The Christian Science Monitor, March 23, 1917

 

*The full title is:

THE REAL AND IDEAL,
THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE TRUE;
OR,
ART IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE
ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION
OF 1876.
A PLAIN TREATISE, IN PLAIN LANGUAGE, FOR PLAIN PEOPLE,
IN WHICH THE TRUE THEORY OF ART AND THE PROPER
MISSION OF AN ARTIST ARE EXAMINED,
AND THE BOASTED REVELATION OF THE MODERN SCHOOL OF PRE-
RAPHAELITISM SHOWN TO BE BUT A SIMPLE PLAGIARISM
OF AN OLD MASTER
BY
A RUSTIC RUSKIN

Published by Samuel Tinsley, Strand, London, 1876.

 

(Q: Who was 'A Rustic Ruskin'?)