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| J.W. Godward: the Eclipse of Classicism, by Vern Grosvenor Swanson, Phd |
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Yet, by 1889 Godward felt confident enough to leave his parent's residence, at No. 7 Wilton Road in Wimbledon, for a more artistically endowed setting in Chelsea. "During the 1880's and '90's," writes Giles Walkley, "more than at any other stage, Chelsea secured its international name as the art centre of London."99 This area beckoned Godward with its artistic ambiance. He moved into a leasehold house at 34 St. Leonard's Terrace on the corner of Smith Street. It was owned by the "sympathetic to artists" estate agents, Arthur Cocks and Samuel Elsworthy, and leased at £24 per annum.100 It was situated close to the Chelsea College of Art and Trafalgar Studios in Manresa Road. Most of the houses in this area dated from the late 18th to early 19th centuries. Number 34 was located kitty-corner to the pavilion in the gardens of Burton's Court Park, just north of the Royal Hospital.101 It was less than fifty yards west of Bram Stoker's home. The creator of the Dracula story lived at No. 17 from 1896 to 1906. The attraction for Godward was the studio, located just around the corner at No. 1 St. Leonard's Studio on Smith Street, a mere thirty yards from his home. This spacious single story studio, looking much the same today as it did during Godward's residency, had a garden and courtyard at the back of the studio. It was here that Godward was able to find his niche in the history of classical-subject painting. Unfortunately for him, he chose a tradition that was quickly dying, both intellectually and expressively.
Not the least of these artists was the classical-subject painter and sculptor, William E. Reynolds-Stephens (1862-1943). Reynolds-Stephens had began his career as an engineer and then turned to art about 1882. Reynolds-Stephens lived next door to J. W. Godward at No.33 St. Leonard's Studios [Terrace] from 1888 to 1894.102 A notebook in Reynolds-Stephens' own hand [V&A Library] states that the artist was at St. Leonard's Studios/Terrace from 1888 to 1894. His tenure overlaps Godward's residency of 1889 to 1894 and may have been the reason for Godward taking a studio there.103 They both had an entrance on Smith Street at the junction of the stairs leading to No. 33/34. Reynolds-Stephens had studied at the RA Schools (1884-87), winning the Landseer Scholarship and also a prize for painting. His large classical canvas, Summer was conceived by 1888 and completed in 1890.104It was a huge success and must have inspired the slightly older Godward. He exhibited a broad diversity in subject and medium, being a painter, sculptor and decorator of Classical, Arthurian and historical subjects. He was knighted in 1931.105 Though a year younger than Godward, Reynolds-Stephens was ahead of John William in terms of training and notoriety. Of all the English classical-subject artists born in the 1860's these two were the most important. To have them living side by side in their formative years seems more than coincidental for their artistic development. The similarity between the two artists is remarkable, especially in their description of exotic details -- leopard, tiger and bear skins, marble exedras, terraces and floors, tessellated mosaics, as well as Greco-Roman artifacts and motifs. Surely there must have been a strong interaction between them.106 It is possible that through Reynolds-Stephens, Godward came under the spell of Alma-Tadema. In 1889 Reynolds-Stephens executed in copper a decorative panel, adapted from Tadema's noted painting The Women of Amphissa. It had been commissioned by Tadema himself. Then while he was still in St. Leonard's Terrace he completed his ethereal masterpiece, In the Arms of Morpheus (1894). Godward could not have remained unaffected. Giles Walkley notes, "Reynolds-Stephens moved to St. John's Wood where he was commissioned to decorate Alma-Tadema's house (JWG's style would also seem to suit NW8 rather than SW6)."107 McLean's 25th Annual Exhibition in 1889 saw four Godward oils on view and for sale, including; Callirrhoe, Lovers, Scene in Pompeii, Meditation, and The Mishap: A Roman Interior. All were painted in the 1888-89 period. An extra-ordinary production of art followed his move, which was probably prompted and orchestrated by McLean. Some credit could be given to Godward for the heyday of McLean Gallery in the London art market. That year Godward painted about twenty five oils, mostly for his dealer. Though the move to St. Leonard's was not far in terms of miles it was a quantum exodus in terms of advancement of his career. Two of the artist's most ambitious paintings of 1889 were Sewing Girl and Waiting for an Answer. Both pictures were multifigured, a feature which would become increasingly rare in his oeuvre. In Waiting for an Answer it is possible that we see a self-portrait of the artist, for the male figure looks very much like Godward's brothers of whom we have known photographs. The girl was Godward's steady model, who appears in many of his paintings of the period. Perhaps the picture's title reflects Godward's sexual relationship with her. It would seem that an unrequited life would be his fate. Godward painted very few men and never alone without at least one female companion, again a haunting reminder of his own loneliness. In the wake of John William's move from of his parent's home, Mary Frederica [called Nin] also "escaped" shortly afterwards. She married William George Scott (1852- ) on the 19th of October 1889.108 They were married at the Merton Church in Surrey, not in the local church in Wimbledon and lived at Fernhurst in Wimbledon. Clearly there was a problem with her marriage from its inception.109 She was twenty-three years old and married a man fourteen years her senior. Perhaps in attempting to breakout of a stifling family condition, she actually married a "father figure." It might have been that the marriage was arranged by her parents with Mary Frederica willing to accept the proposal to extricate herself from Denmark Hill. In either scenario, she had married wrong and W. G. Scott was never mentioned after he left the family. The circumstances of his departure are unknown, but it was felt that he had an alcohol problem and she left him. A divorce probably ensued which, made Mary Frederica a "black sheep" of a family which such social improprieties were simply not allowed. She seems to be especially estranged from her father and ostracized by her brothers Edmund "Ted" and Alfred. We know that Nin was left to raise her two small children on her own.110 The census returns for 1891 show the Scott family, with seven month old Wm. John Scott, were living at Wilton Road in Wimbledon. After the trauma of her brief marriage, she remains single for the rest of her life. After the death of her father in 1904, she returns to Denmark Hill to take care of her mother. The story was sad, but Nin was not. She became stronger for the experience and retained her youthful spirit her entire ninety years. | |
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Yet it was just this "slight theme" that would form the basis of Godward's art. A Priestess of Bacchus (1890) was less modest in its pretensions. It depicts a Bacchante resting on a marble exedra seat, high on a balcony overlooking the blue Mediterranean. She holds a thyrsis, the symbol of her cult, while daydreaming about having a suitor like the couple descending a marble stairway. The perspective of the stairs and greatly foreshortened distances demonstrates Godward's continued reliance on the compositional devises of Alma-Tadema.
Clymene was also notable as the first known John William Godward oil to employ the peacock fan, an accoutrement often used in Godward's paintings. The peacock feather with its iridescent eyes were considered unlucky on the Continent but not in England. This seems not to have deterred Godward even after his move to Italy. One of his most ambitious early efforts was Innocent Amusements (1891). It depicts an ancient Roman atrium with fountain and marble statue. A lady takes time from her sewing to balance a peacock plume on her finger while two younger girls look on. In the distance, through several passages is seen two men discussing matters. Another interesting oil of 1891 is titled Playtime in which we see three patrician Romans on a balcony. A man in tunic, looking very much like Godward's brothers, and probably being the artist himself, looks longingly at a young maiden teasing a kitten with a peacock feather. There might have been a Platonic affair between the artist and his model of the above mention pictures. This romance may have culminated in 1893 with Godward's oil with the rhetorical title, Yes or No?. The answer must have been no. The next year was either an off year, productivity-wise, or our record of Godward's accomplishments is fragmentary. Only eight oils are recorded for that year, which may mean several things; that he was ill, he traveled, our record is deficient or he spent too much time remodeling his home and studio, etc. It may mean that he was doing other work as well. Five of Godward's eight pictures of 1891 had more than one figure thus answering the question of why his production was so low. These more ambitious pictures would have consumed more time than those with less figures. While Godward would continue to do other pictures, incorporating more than one figure, they would, after 1891 become increasingly rare. This was probably an aesthetic as well as professional decision given Godward's ineptitude at composing convincingly more than one figure. In the 1891 census of St. Leonards Terrace, Godward describes himself as "artist (painter) Sculp." At the time he was living next to the sculptor Reynolds-Stephens. He may have reverted back to doing sculptural work. Ann Godward Wilkie notes that a youthful J. W. Godward had carved classical maiden heads on the fronts of some of the houses in Smith Street in Chelsea and earlier on West Bridge Road in Battersea.112 They too could have provided a distraction from his painting in 1891. Godward's uncle William had lived in Smith Street at one stage. It is said that some of the streets in Chelsea were built by a man called Eborall and might have something to do with Sarah's family.113 It might have been that members from his mother's side of the family employed Reynolds-Stephens and J. W. Godward to decorate some of the buildings they were constructing? McLean's 18th Annual exhibition in London featured Godward's rather crowded, At the Garden Shrine, Pompeii (1892). According to a March 30th 1892 letter from Thomas McLean the picture was purchased for £75. This amount is interesting in that it gives a sense of Godward's prices at the time for what the letter describes as a "small upright picture." In order to turn a profit, McLeans would have had to ask £125 for the picture. This was a hefty amount by the standards of his day and translated into today's money would equal about $5,000! Godward's A Lone Maid was exhibited at the RBA in 1892, the last oil he would show there. Perhaps it was the same picture that Nisbet wrote disparaging about: The Betrothed (1892) was also important because it introduced the "polka-dot" stola into Godward's repertoire. It was also the first oil by the artist to be placed in the permanent collection of a major art museum. In 1916 it was donated to the Guildhall Art Gallery in London where it remains today. Godward's A Classical Beauty (1892) painted the same year was notable for replacing the typical marble and granite background with a brocade tapestry. Now, instead of the strong contract between the fleshy face and hard white marble, subtler nuances of colour and value pervade this oil. In some ways this approach was more satisfying than the high relief "poppers" of his pictures. Of all the paintings, to date, perhaps none were as important as The Playground (1892). Its seven classically draped maidens is the most ambitious multi-figures work in Godward's oeuvre. Although the composition was wonderfully successful he never again repeated its complexity. It remains unique for an artist who preferred the quietude of a single figure. The mise-en-scene transpires on a marble terrace overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Girls of differing ages are seen playing the flute, amusing themselves with a game of knucklebones or skiping rope. | |
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