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  • John William Godward
    Aug 9, 1861 - Dec 13, 1922
  • In the Grove of the Temple of Isis - Godward excelled in oil and watercolour. His work remained consistent throughout a remarkable career spanning almost forty years, over which time he created a vital stylistic niche for his oeuvre. Godward is best known for his highly finished paintings of pretty girls attired in classical robes, indeed, he became known as the master ‘classical tunic gown’ painter.
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In the Grove of the Temple of Isis
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  • In the Grove of the Temple of Isis

  • John William Godward
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  • 1915
    Oil on canvas
    80 x 40 cm (31.5 x 15.75 in.)
    Private Collection.

    John William Godward devoted his entire career to the depiction of feminine beauty, painting favourite models again and again in exquisite studies of beauty and colour. His greatest talent was his skill at rendering textures and fabrics and his arrangement of beautiful forms to create an aesthetic ensemble. There is never any threat or danger, or even any importance of narrative. His work is typical of the Aesthetic movement, being essentially without narrative or dramatic charge, decorative and consciously devoid of any suggestion of movement or emotion. The women are always content, alluring and absorbed, but what or who they dream of is not explained or important.

    Isis was originally a deity central to the mythology of ancient Egypt, the daughter of Geb the god of the earth and Nut the godess of the sky, but was later adopted by the Romans during their expansion of the Empire. Groves sacred to Isis were built across the classical world, in Greece and Rome and as far east as Assyria. Isis was identified with fertility and re-birth thus her temples and shrines were sacred to femininity.

    In the Grove of the Temple of Isis depicts a voluptuous young woman on the steps leading to a temple. She does not appear to be a priestess and her loose toga and stola tied at the waist, bound hair and tambourine suggest that she is a dancer contemplating the devotional festivities that will take place after night falls in the sacred grove. Beside her and amongst the blossom of an almond tree is the carved bronze figure of a lion based upon the marble decorations of the famous fountain in the centre of Piazza del Popolo in Rome, which was close to the Villa Strohl Fern where Godward had stayed during a period painting in Rome. The painting epitomises the vogue for ladies in togas which held middle-class London under its enduring spell well into the twentieth century. Technically superb, with gorgeous colour and a sensual suggestion of pagan revelry, In the Grove of the Temple of Isis exemplifies the very best of Godward's work.

    In the Grove of the Temple of Isis was painted in 1915 while Godward was staying in Rome at the Villa Strohl-Fern, in one of the artist's studios in the gardens of the Villa Borghese. Godward had been at the villa since 1912, and although an outsider among the colony of Italian artists who made their home on the side of Monte Parioli, he worked industriously at his series of paintings of luscious young women in pagan garb. Surrounded by the woodlands of pine and cedar and enclosed by the high walls of the villa, Godward found seclusion and amongst the classical sculpture collected by the Alsatian-born Alfred Wilhelm Strohl-Fern, he found inspiration. There was no shortage of beautiful female models willing to drape themselves in togas, their hair bound up in a bandeaux and their ears burdened by jewellery of ancient design. The artist Sir William Russell Flint described a visit to Godward's studio in the winter of 1912 '[Godward] had one of the finest studios in the Villa Strohl-Fern grounds. It had a wonderful outlook, and among its decorations was a horse's skull locally supposed to be that of Strohl-Fern himself 'when young'. The likeness was remarkable.' (Vern G. Swanson, J. W. Godward, The Eclipse of Classicism, 1997, p. 100)

    This was a time of success for the often troubled Godward, who was awarded a gold medal at the Rome International exhibition of 1913 for his picture The Belvedere.

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Other paintings by John William Godward:

In Realms of Fancy
In Realms of Fancy
In the Days of Sappho
In the Days of Sappho
In the Prime of the Summer Time
In the Prime of the Summer Time
In the Tepidarium
In the Tepidarium
John William GodwardJohn William Godward was a painter of classical genre scenes. His works embody the aesthetics of the circle of artists around Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912), often described as the ‘Greco-West Kensington School’, who saw the world of Ancient Greece as a Golden Age of poetic beauties and graceful languor. He excelled in oil and watercolour. His work remained consistent throughout a remarkable career spanning almost forty years, over which time he created a vital stylistic niche for his oeuvre.

Godward is best known for his highly finished paintings of pretty girls attired in classical robes, indeed, he became known as the master ‘classical tunic gown’ painter. The diaphanous fabrics of their Grecian tunics highlight their pearly flesh surrounded by marble statuary and balustrades amidst abundant flowers. He was admired for his archaeologically exact rendering of the surfaces of marble and the flowing movement of classical costume. These girls reminded one critic of ‘true English roses’ as much as Hellenic goddesses; it is this gentle beauty which is Godward’s greatest charm. He first worked in his father’s prosperous insurance firm before training with William Hoff Wonter (1814-1881) to become an architect. He became a friend of Wontner’s son, William Clarke (1857-1930) who was also a painter. Vern Swanson has persuasively argued that Godward probably attended the St John’s Wood Art School at Elm Tree Road and the Clapham School of Art in the early 1880’s.

Godward exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy between 1887 and 1905 and at the Royal Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street, of which he became a member in 1889. Godward’s paintings were also often accepted to the Birmingham Royal Society of Artists’ Autumn Exhibitions. The art dealer Thomas McLean was an important champion of his work which was often included in his annual exhibitions. The prints made of Godward’s work by McLean and later by Eugène Cremetti introduced a wider audience to the artist’s work and guaranteed his popularity. He also exhibited internationally, making his début at the Paris Salon of 1899. In 1913 he was awarded the gold medal at the International Exhibition in Rome. The first years of the twentieth century saw a revival of interest in classicism, as prosperity rose throughout the British Empire. In fact, ‘the early Victorians believed that in ancient Rome they had found a parallel universe – a flawless mirror of their own immaculate world,” (cited in Iain Gale, ‘The Empire Looks Back’, Country Life, 30th May 1996, p.68.) This increased Godward’s popularity and success, with 1910 emerging as one of the best years for him as an artist.

Godward lived with his parents in Wimbledon until he achieved financial and critical success in 1889. He took a house at 34 St Leonard’s Terrace on the corner of Smith Street in Chelsea. He gave up his lease at Bolton Studios and rented a studio just around the corner. He filled his studio with marbles, ancient statues (mostly reproductions) and other antique objects, which he purchased from local shops and East End dealers, attempting to recreate a Graeco-Roman inspirational environment for his work. After a first trip to southern Italy in 1911, Godward moved to Rome where he remained until 1921. He took up residence in the Villa Stohl-Fern on the Monti Parioli near the Villa Borghese. The abundance of floral varieties and statuary in the villa’s elegant gardens appear in his work of this period. However, declining health and depression, meant Godward produced very few paintings in later life. Having returned to London in 1921, he committed suicide and was buried in Old Brompton Cemetery, Fulham.

The work of John William Godward is represented in the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth and the Manchester City Art Gallery.