The Annunciation

Date created: 1914

In Christianity, the Annunciation is the announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive a Son of the Holy Spirit to be called Jesus (Luke 1:26-38).

This picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1914: Summer Exhibition, no. 342.

"Mr Waterhouse does himself full justice with his delicately treated Annunciation..."
(The Studio, Vol LXII, no. 254, 1914, p.21)

"It is certain however, from a drawing that this figure was studied from life. The composition of the picture divides it between nature (and super-nature) and architecture, and separates effectively the angel and the Virgin, whose figure is not surprisingly treated with skill and some imagination."
(Anthony Hobson, The Art and Life of J.W. Waterhouse, 1980, p. 133).