all one's life
Waterhouse was born in Rome. He took an Italian nickname "Nino" when he was a child. My father is from Yorkshire, England. He is a painter with a solid foundation. My mother is Italian. Influenced by his father, waterhouse showed his talent for painting very early, and his relatives and friends nicknamed him Nino, which is the abbreviation of Italian Renaissance master Giovannino. Because waterhouse lived in Italy for eight years in his early years and liked Greek mythology very much, he later took Greek mythology as his painting theme.
Waterhouse's first exhibition at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts was about sleep and the death of his half-brother (1874). He went to Italy again in 1875 and 1888, which made him interested in the color of external light, but he didn't describe real life like impressionism and naturalism, and there were few works like Two Italian Rural Girls (1875), which mostly imitated Alma Tedima (65438+) such as ". Take a sick child to a medical temple (1877) and, of course, Diogenes (1877) is the most vivid one.
1883165438+1On October 8th, 34-year-old waterhouse and 25-year-old Esther Kenwater got married in St. Mary's parish church. This woman with black eyes and round face later played a great role in waterhouse art, and many paintings were created by her as a model.
1884' s Looking Up at the House of God marks his return to classicism.
St. Aurelia (1885) participated in the exhibition of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts this year, and his techniques were more perfect.
The Magic Circle (1886) and Marianne's Leaving Herod's Court (1887) were both exhibited in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and the image of the wife in the works was basically fixed. This kind of works are more or less influenced by Alma Tedema's art. In grand and gorgeous scenes, the characters are beautiful and the details are wonderful.
What really shocked him was "Lady Charlotte" (1888), which was an image constructed entirely with the popular feelings of the British, and the theme was selected from Tennyson's long poems. Charlotte has a beautiful woman. She was trapped by God in an ancient castle. She can only project the image into the indoor mirror through the window to appreciate her idol, Knight Lancelot. Just look out the window and she will be destroyed. To kill herself, she knits every day. One day, I couldn't help looking out. Bad luck arrival, the mirror broke, the silk thread entangled her, and then she was taken to the place of death by God. The picture shows Ms. Charlotte sitting on the boat and dying. This is a lonely and sad image rarely seen before. She is sentimental, mysterious, alienated and elegant, which not only conforms to Victoria's depressed feelings, but also has an indescribable image of emptiness and sadness, and many details are also in line with the public's taste. This painting is also the beginning of waterhouse's artistic tone, which reveals a lonely narcissism.
1890 65438+1On October 24th, waterhouse's father passed away. He is the earliest teacher in waterhouse. In grief, he did not send his works to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts this year. The following year, he exhibited Ulysses and Sai Ren at the Royal Academy, which was his first work echoing the evil thoughts of women. In this painting, he restored Sai Ren to the image of a bird with a woman's head. This painting was praised by everyone. It was recommended by the social realist painter Huckmer (1849- 19 14) as an academician of the academy. Art magazine commented that waterhouse was a colorist and archaeologist.
The sexy Toast to Ulysses, which has the same connotation as this painting, also uses mythical images to express women's evil thoughts. Cece is a witch in Greek mythology. Whoever drinks her wine will become a pig. She once detained Ulysses, the hero of the voyage, for a period of time. Sexy charm (1892) also expresses this meaning. Witches on the screen are not only more erotic than before, but also have the characteristics of "water house beauty". The image of this woman with long reddish-brown hair and black eyes is beautiful and profound, sometimes warm and charming, and sometimes frightening.
Beauty without mercy (1893) illustrates the meaning of the picture, which is taken from Keats' poem of the same name published by 1820.
At this time, he painted "Lady Charlotte" (1894), which showed the significance of women's initiative and enterprising at the moment of struggling with fate. This is most evident in Naiad (1893), a naked woman floating from the river who greedily stares at the young people sleeping on the grassy slope. This red-haired woman is becoming more and more attractive.
In O 'filia (1984), the beautiful image of her meditation is even more pleasing. This painting won extraordinary praise when it was exhibited in the new gallery and the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition.
Santacecilia (1895) is waterhouse's work close to academic idealism. Lazy, Leng Yan and decorative features come from Leiden's "The Twisted Thread" (1830- 1896). Sleeping Beauty comes from Boone Jones and was painted by George before he left the studio. Boone Jones completely influenced waterhouse. Hylas and the Landscape Fairy is a symphony of poetry and painting, which is the perfect embodiment of walter pater's theory.
From 1868, Pater published the article "Aesthetics of Poetry" and commented on Morris's poems, which had a great response in the aesthetic field. Aestheticism is brewing and developing in Britain. 1885, Pate published Mallio of Hedonism. Based on the theory of Epicurus, the ancient Greek materialist philosopher, he demonstrated the rationality of hedonism in modern society and thought that life should be grasped to the greatest extent.
Waterhouse's paintings are based on the story of Argo's hero sailing in distress in Greek mythology. It is said that the young hero Hylas was dragged down by daffodils and drowned on his way to the river. Waterhouse painted fairies leaning out of the water lily pond, their white bodies longing for him. This is not pulling people into the water at all, but holding them gently, affectionate, true and illusory, and the viewer will stare silently ... This painting was exhibited in the Royal Academy from 1897, and then went out many times, from 1900 to 1978, it was widely printed and became the 20th century.
Waterhouse not only saw the trend of aestheticism, but also saw the gloom in Victorian real life. He seems to understand the depression of British women very well. Echo and Narcissus is based on Greek mythology. Narcissus is such a beautiful and self-admiring young man that no one cares about him. Ike is a landscape fairy, who likes Naxi Theseus very much, but has never been loved by him. Narcissus went to the river to take care of himself every day, but Ike could only look at him with injustice, and finally died of depression, becoming an echo, and its self-echo became narcissism. This is an idea at the end of 19, when the Norwegian writer Strimbo suggested that "people seek little happiness from themselves and get nothing from others."
O Filja (19 10), please listen to my wonderful flute (also known as the piper boy, 19 1 1). Lady Charlotte said: I am half in the shadow (196545). However, to our surprise, waterhouse painted fate at 1900, which was a scene in which a woman offered hard liquor. It was entirely in response to the Queen: 1899. After the outbreak of the Ying Bu (Boer) war in South Africa, the Queen called on all walks of life in the country to support * * *, so 330 painters auctioned their works to provide military expenses for the British army. This painting is 65430.
It is worth mentioning that waterhouse painted not only Sai Ren and the sexy witch, but also Psyche, but never Venus, Minerva or Di Anna. It can be seen that although he sympathizes with repressed women, he doesn't like the god Venus. For this reason, in his later works, besides the group paintings of Moment of Spring, such as Five Leaves of Anemone and Wind in March, he also painted Penelope and the Buyer and Pure rosamond, which showed his praise for the Virgin.
However, he seems to understand the embarrassing position of chastity concept in modern society, and drew his sister Dana Ides. This painting, also called "bottomless water tank", is based on Greek mythology: the king of Egypt has two twin sons, the Danaus brothers. My brother has 50 daughters and 50 sons. My brother wants his 50 daughters to marry his 50 sons. On their wedding night, Dana Ides and her sisters killed their husbands respectively. In order to punish them, God set up a water tank to punish them and filled it with water. If the water is full, they will be punished, but the water tank is always dissatisfied, which means it is futile. Generally speaking, waterhouse's later art became more and more vague in theme meaning, lost the depth of his early years, greatly weakened his expressive force and gradually lost its due brilliance.
1883, he married the daughter of an art school principal and gave birth to two children, both of whom died in childbirth. His wife is also a painter, who participated in the exhibition of the Royal Academy of Art. After painting, waterhouse engaged in art teaching, served as a member of the Committee of the Royal Academy of Art, and joined various art associations. Romantic and fantastic aesthetic painting, although he intends to be a pre-Raphael style, shows a special form inspired by me.
His success not only shows the perfection of the senses, but also enables people to explain it with self-knowledge and self-world. 19 17 died of cancer.
representative works
Charlotte woman
Hylas and water sprite.
Sleeping God and Death