John Waterhouse (1849-1917) was one of the Pre-Raphaelite painters of the 19th Century, England. He painted main of women in myths, in literatures and biblical stories. He worked first in a manner close to Alma Tadema painting ancient genre scenes. He was elected as an associate of the Royal Academy in 1885 and a full member 10 years later.

1. John Waterhouse
The painter of myth and beautiful women
First created Jun 2009. Version 2.0 - 20 Dec 2018. Daperro. London.
The Lady of Shalott. 1888.

2. An early work – Recreating ancient Rome and Greece.

3. The death of a 12 year old Christian martyr.

4. The death of a 12 year old Christian martyr.
This is the first painting that launched John
Waterhouse’s career as a painter. It made him
noticed. What is it in the painting that get him
noticed.
St Eulalia look much older than 12 with well
developed breasts. A nude lying on the ground is
attractive enough but also in snow makes it a very
powerful image.
Pigeons are not scavengers but they seem to be
ready to feast on the body. Pigeon is usually the
symbol of peace and also the symbol for the
presence of the Holy Ghost.
The hairs are neatly spread hair mix with blood.
The on-lookers being kept away adding to the
mystery of the painting.
Finally, the whole painting is united by shade of red,
making pleasant to look at.

5. Marianmne - An innocent adulteress.
Sister’s gossip in a husband’s ears (King Herod).
Doubting jury?

6. Lady Shalott

7. ‘The Lady of Shalott’ is a ballad by the poet
Lord Tennyson (English 1809-1892).
Lady Shalott was condemned by a curse to
see the outside through her mirror, in the
tower.
She was weaving a tapestry, when she saw
Sir Lancelot directly and fell in love with him.
She left the tower upon a boat. She dies
before reaching Camelot.
Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely [chain] flew to left and right --
The leaves upon her falling light –
Thro’ the noises of the night,
She floated down to Camelot….
Lady Shalott

8. A beautiful goddess with a potion of drugs.
With her wand, she turns
men into pigs.
Ulysses comes to recue
his sailors.
Circe & Ulysses

9. All Waterhouse’s mythical females are beautiful but real people. The Sirens in
this paintings are based on the female sphinxes.
Ulysses

10. Circe tipping her potion to poison her
adversary. Note how the figure is elongated.

11. Naiad or Hylas

12. La Belle Dame sans Merci

13. “To the celestial and my soul’s idol, the most
beautified Ophelia …..” Hamlet (Shakespeare).
Ophella

14. Waterhouse’s paintings often depict a romantic approach to the female fatale. Beautiful, young
and real, rarely mythical. She maybe dignified or curious but always expressionless. Are the
women repressed and lovelorn?

15. She saw the water-lily bloom
She saw the helmet and the plume
……..
The mirror crack’d from side to side
“The curse is come upon me” cried
The Lady of Shalott.
Lady Shalott

16. St Cecilia

17. Pandora.

18. Group of seven women in several of his paintings. Coincident or occult?

19. The interlocking glances

20. She (Ariadne) sleeps while her ungrateful lover (Theseus) sails away.
Ariadne and Theseus

21. Flora and the Zephyrs

22. Juliet

23. Tragic women

24. This painting was given to the Artists
War Fund in support of the casualties of
the Boer War.
Destiny, a toast to the departing warriors.

25. Orpheus, the greatest musician in Greek myth,
with his lyre. Victorian romanticism?
Orpheus

26. The Siren is the Ancient Greek equivalent of
the Mermaid.
Siren.

27. A sinister scaly tail contrast with the soft and
beautiful body.
The mermaid, like Sirens, is condemned to lure
the passing sailors to their death, singing the
song of love.
But there is no love and there is no family, only
loneliness.
The Tragedy of the Mermaid.

28. Boreas is the Greek god of the cold north
wind. Painting shows a girl holding her
scarf in the wind in Spring.
Boreas

29. Waterhouse painted women with beauty and
simplicity. Is this goddess Proserpina who was
carried to the Underground by Pluto while
gathering flowers?
Proserpina

30. Psyche, the most beautiful mortal take peep at the
Golden Box, given to her by Venus and contains an
infernal sleep.
Psyche.

31. Echo and Narcissus.

32. Diogenes was a Cynic philosopher, who ask
Alexander the Great not to block the sun, when
Alexander request what service he could render him.
Diogenes

33. Lamia was a beautiful queen who became a children
devouring monster, with a serpent’s tail.
Lamia.

34. Ophelia … far too soft, too good, too fair… so
exquisitely delicate, it seems as if a touch would
profane it…. The love of Ophelia … is a secret …..
By Mrs. Jameson 1832
Or weak and fable?
Ophelia.

35. His passion for poetry inspires him to paint the romantic imagination encapsulated in the works of
Shakespeare, Tennyson and Keats.
Ophelia.

36. “Rose of the World” a famed beauty who fell in
love with King Henry II of England, became his
mistress, met the king in Clifford Castle.
Rosemund.

37. Soul of the Rose

38. Jason & Medea

39. The Annunciations

40. There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay
The Lady of Shalott

41. Another of group of women but only six of them.

42. Miranda of Tempest, who thinks all men are wonderful.
Miranda

43. Isolde was escorted by Tristan to marry his
uncle. Accidentally Isolde and Tristan drank the
love portion, which was meant for the wedding
night.
Isolde

44. Biography
John William Waterhouse (1849 – 1917) painted
female characters from mythology and literature.
He was inspired by the paintings of Sir Lawrence
Alm-Tadema, whose depictions of classical,
Roman landscapes and legends. He unified the
immediacy of French naturalist techniques with the
Romantic imagination encapsulated in the works
of Shakespeare, Tennyson and Keats.
From the early 1890s he broadened the literary
scope to encompass Greek myths as told by
Homer, Ovid and other ancient poets.
He received his diploma from the Academy for his
painting of a Mermaid.
He Married the flower-painter Esther Kenworthy in
1883. The childless couple rented room near their
Primrose Hill.
He died in 1917 in London after a long struggle with
liver cancer.
On Waterhouse, Christopher Wood once wrote “[He]
only had one song to sing yet he sang it very
beautifully”.

45. The End
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Paintings relative size comparison.
Music – Let Me Kiss You by Ernesto Cortazar

46. English Painters