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| J.W. Godward: the Eclipse of Classicism, by Vern Grosvenor Swanson, Phd |
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The neighboring premises of No.416 had served the Cuccioli & Co bronze and iron casting foundry from 1910. It was then pur-chased, again as a foundry, by Frederick Mancini from 1912.269 It remained so until about 1925 when it came into the possession of Mario Manenti, who had come to England some years earlier. He was responsible for many of the 1914-1918 war memorials, notably that to the Cameroonians in Glasgow and one at Dover. Manenti purchased the fine Victorian house and garden at No. 414 in late 1924, which he began to convert into studios. Godward's leasehold, Nos.410-412 did not pass into Manenti's hands until after 1930.270 Olive M. Squair writes of his activities: Numbers 410-416 Fulham Road were now remodeled into a communal artists studios and named the Italian Village by Mario Manenti. Residents affectionately called it "the Village" though later it became known as Chelsea Studios. The first tenant, according to Electoral Registers, moved in towards the end of 1928.272 Studios arranged around well planted communal gardens, grape-vine lined stone paths, varied in design and size from single-story, ground-floor, all-purposes room to a two-story house of several rooms. It seems that Manenti had some difficulty in obtaining the consent of the London County Council when he first presented his plans. But they were so charmed that they stipulated when giving their consent, that it must always be maintained in its present form.273Today Nos. 410/412 and 414/416 are the only part of Stamford Italian Villas that have remain untouched. Others were defaced or pulled down. Originally the Villas stretched from Stamford Bridge down to fulham Broadway. The Italian Village still stands with most of its former enchantment. Author, Barbara Denny notes the area is, "so charming that one hesitates to record it for fear that it should be betrayed."274 An oasis of twenty studios for artist's and non-artists alike, it is a respite from the hectic traffic on Fulham Road and the Chelsea Football Grounds. The famous Stamford Bridge on the west side of the studios help give a secluded look to the village.275 The tight-knit community of this place stand in stark contrast to the time the Godward family lived here.276 Alice Munro-Faure spoke of the Village: After Godward came Gaudier-Brzeska who lived further up Fulham Road and portraitist Annigoni who lived in the Italian Village (Chelsea Studio). Aubry Davidson-Houston ( -1995) also lived in the Village. Like Annigoni, she too painted portraits of the Queen. A large number of Italian artists were living close by especially at the Fulham Studios, 452-54 Fulham Road. There were also a number of sculptures, presumably attracted by the foundry at No. 416, of Cuccioli & Co. and after 1912 by Frederick Mancini.
Most of his paintings were somewhat gypsy, orientalist and only vaguely classical. Wontner painted relatively few strictly classical works and most of these quite modest affairs. Nor could we say that the body of his work compared in quality to the oeuvre of Godward. Though a minor figure in British art historical terms he played a central role in the life and art of John William Godward that can never be underestimated. By 1930 most of the important late classical artists had died. After Wontner's death came the that of George Lawrence Bullied in 1933, J. C. Dollman in 1934, Wm. Reynolds-Stephens in 1943 and Abbey Alston in 1949. Reynold-Stephens to a large extent gave-up painting the latter years of his life. He was best friends with Ralph Peacock, who died shortly after him. By the time Godward's mother, Sarah Eborall, died on the 29th of December 1935, her estate was worth only £875 in cash.278 She also left leasehold houses, Nos. 19, 21, 23 and 25 Harwood Terrace in Fulham to her daughter Mary Frederica G. Scott.279 The houses were undoubtedly good investments but the pictures by her son in her estate, were not so good for they were nearly worthless after 1935. Edmund "Ted" Godward, like his brothers, was a graduate of Epson College. He worked for 51 years in the banking business. He had become the London chairman of the Bank of Australasia in 1923 at the retirement of the elderly Mr. Jeans. His wife, Elizabeth Beatrice Formby died in December 1926, leaving him childless. After her death and his retirement he left "The Dover House" at Cheam in Surrey. In 1931 Edmund moved to "The Grange" a large Georgian house with a lake and tennis court on the premises, in Crawley Down, Sussex. Edmund made a special tour of Australia and New Zealand between December 1932 and May 1933.280 He retired in 1937 from the bank and lived the life of country gentry. According to local historians, Edmund was a quiet man and did not get involved in local village life. He would make a weekly trip to London to keep-up with business and check the antique market. He became quite an expert on antique furniture, English and Chinese porcelain and glass, silver and rugs, which he collected assiduously. As a banker he was, of course, quite money oriented and amassed considerable wealth. Nevertheless he was generous to his brother Charles Arthur and nephew, Peter John Godward.281 He died at "The Grange" on the 26th of November of 1946 at the age of 78.282 He left and estate of £8,681 45s 5d, a healthy sum for the time. The house was eventually sold to become a school. At his death it took five estate auctions to divest his collections, these were held at Sotheby's in London in 1947.283 However, the sell of his art collection was at "The Grange". That sold was orchestrated by Frank Millard Henn, an antique dealer, of Middle Row East Grinstead with Knight, Frank and Rutley on the 12th and 13th of May 1947.284 Edmund seems to have had only five small portrait busts by Godward and a colour print. Nin, then living at 18 Coalway Avenue Wolverhampton in Stafford Widow in 1947, writes her Last Will and Testament. When she died a decade later, at nearly 91 years of age, she left her entire estate to her daughter, Frederica Winifred Sarah Scott Burne.285 With this inheritance, Winifred too was financially comfortable. She only outlived her mother by six years and willed her estate to her daughter, Felicity Mary Burne Turner of Great Barr in Birmingham. Meanwhile, Charles Arthur, Gertrude Horton and their son Peter John Godward, lived at "The Barton" in Surrey. C. A. Godward was a sportsman in Cricket and Badminton. At the age of seventy-five he was finally beaten in tennis by his son, at which time he quite the sport. They lived comfortable though not particularly prosperous lives. Gertrude really did not like her brother-in-law's paintings any more than she liked him. After her husband's death on the 9th of October 1949, she moved to Coulsdon in Surrey and promptly sold those pictures with scantily clad women to an second-hand dealer.286 However numerous small landscape and fruit still-life studies were kept by the family.287 The John Godward family has now thinned out to just a few direct posterity. Few children were born and bachelorhood was prevalent. What remained of the family were keen on having this volume published as a record of the most historically significant of their clan. | |
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Ivy calls him "a loner with a very quite nature," who wasn't interested in the family though he got along with family members individually.289 She said that he seemed immersed in his work and had little personality. He was a conscientious man, "who would kindly 'excuse' himself to be alone in his studio." If his reclusive personality was responsible for his relative lack of acclaim, or whether he became embittered and reclusive because of it, we do not know for sure.290Though the former seems to answer directly to the details of his life.
Mary Frederica spoke of him as a retiring, not involved with family or friends, nice and gentle, and not at all a trouble maker. She never once spoke of his committing suicide. That part of the story just "never existed" while she kept in mind the good parts of his life and kindly feelings. In fact Ivy Godward, who was married and living at No. 412 Fulham Road the day he died, never knew that he committed suicide until told by the author fifty-eight years later! The perfect quiescence in Godward's idealistic paintings hid his own afflicted personality. If this broken spirit was deeply religious is not known. Nothing seems to indicate that he faith-fully believed in God, more likely he was a Christian by tradition, not conversion. Repressed deep within the shy personality of the artist, Joseph A. Kestner sees a tormented soul: Dr. Kent Rich sees Godward's reclusive nature as an outgrowth of a controlling exclusive family. According to Nin's side of the family the parents were, "Very strict and authoritarian father and mother, very staid, proper, and mundane."293 As the eldest he had pressures the younger children did not encounter. That he did not conform to the mold established by his parents of a necessity, created some alienation. He became and artist who painted pretty, scantily attired women. They found this unacceptable. He moved out of their home at the age of twenty-six, certainly not a sign of disaffection but rather a sign of a controlling environment. Though he rebelled in terms of his career, he otherwise pathetically conformed to this model, only taking it the next step---eliminating even close relationships within most of his own family. What had been for them just a tight-nit family, for him had progressed to a closed solitary existence. He pushed this limiting trait beyond anything the family could understand. Drs. David Glover, Robert D. Hill, Kent Rich, all diagnose Godward as having the social malady, Avoidant Personality Disorder.294 The essential feature of this type of personality is a pervasive pattern of social discomfort, fear of negative evaluation, timidity, all this beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts.295 Social and occupational activities which involve significant interpersonal contact tended to be avoided. This could be characterized by Godward's non membership in the Chelsea Arts Club and retirement from the RBA.296 He simply was not a joiner.
Professor Robert D. Hill, a research psychologist, feels that Godward was not a schizoid-reclusive because he did not bitterly tell his family or the world to "go to hell." But rather he sees the artist as exhibiting an avoidance personality.298 He was fearful of relationships and especially of rejection and censure. This was probably the reason why he kept at arms length his family, friends, journalists, major exhibitions and even his art dealers. Godward did not seem to suffer from predominate depressive episodes, but rather endured chronic anxiety. One of Godward's coping mechanisms seems to be his "kind politeness" which ingratiated people to him rather alienate them. His excessive kindliness probably stemmed from his need and even desire to engage other people, especially women. He seems not to have suffered from misogyny and gynophobia, but his shyness kept him alone, painfully alone from both genders. Certainly his loneliness contributed to his death. Studies have been made on this syndrone which enlighten us in this case. David Myers and Ed Diener wrote: Not only was he divorced from most of society, but he created an imaginary world to take its place. This mechanism too helped him to maneuver in the challenging and turbulent world as he found it. He avoided disturbing confrontation at all costs and idealized everything he could touch. The "Lone and dreary world" has been replaced with overly idealized paintings of a serene bygone era of perfect halcyon beauty. We know that Godward never married. This elicited the usual rumors of homosexuality. Could it be that Godward's affair with his Italian model was merely family fiction to hide his sexual preference? Was this the true reason that he was considered a black sheep of the family? If Godward was homosexual was it the source of such an unsettled mind, his melancholia? Could Wontner, who had no children, have been more than just a friend?
In the end Godward, was indifferent to the issues of female emancipation. Neither was he interested in any "gynecian war" involving himself with male or female inferiority or superiority. Rather he was simply but passionately enthralled with ideal feminine beauty. Like the work of Alfred Leslie his women are "nurturers." They may be depicted as passive, but never as intimidators or victims. His fascination, even fondness for lovely women, seems genuine and long-term, not just a societal or subconscious compensation for a same sex attraction for men. The reason he was the black sheep could as easily rest upon his suicide, which could not be forgotten because of its permanent and eternal nature. The mere fact of Godward being an artist and painting naked ladies, combined with his reclusive nature made life difficult for him with his very conventional family. In the end he was expunged from the family record. These facts were enough in Victorian society without labeling him a homosexual upon mere speculation. His reclusive nature probably caused much of the estrangement with his family as anything else. He simply did not stay in touch, especially when in Rome. It is said that the only person who communicated with him regularly was his sister Nin.300 Yet in London, at the end of his life he did have some interaction with his family, including his mother: As a person, Godward, had many problems and suffered greatly from them. It was as an artist, that he excelled. The balm of the latter assuaging the anguish of the former. He derived his sense of self-worth from his painting which in turn conferred definition to his life. Only when a balance could not be maintained did the pendulum swing against him and he called an end to his mortality. | |
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