Waterhouse 1890년대의 그림들

Pandora

painting date: 1896
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 152 x 91 cm
location: Private Collection

In myth, Pandora was the first woman ever to be created. At the request of Zeus, she was fashioned from clay by Hephaestus and blessed with every gift the gods could grant. Zeus then endowed her with a box to present to the man who married her, thereby planning to destroy Prometheus' creation of man by giving Pandora to him as a wife. Realizing, however, that Prometheus would be too wise to accept the gift, Zeus conducted her to his less cautious brother, Epimetheus, who married her and opened the box thereby unleashing all the evils and diseases to afflict the world. only hope lingered at the bottom of the box to console man in his troubles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ariadne

painting date: 1898
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 91 x 151 cm
location: Private Collection

 

'Whan Adryane his wif aslepe was
For that hire syster fayrer was than she,
He taketh hire in his hond and forth goth he
To shipe, and as a traytour stal his wey,
Whil that this Adryane aslepe lay.'
Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400), 'The Legend of Good Women'

Each year, as payment for the slaughter of Minos' son, the Athenians offered a tribute of youths and maidens to the monstrous Minotaur that dwelt in the Cretan labyrinth. Designed by Dedalus, the labyrinth was built of such complexity that nobody had ever escaped from its confines. Ariadne's father, Minos, the King of Crete, selected Theseus as part of the offering, but on his arrival at the island Ariadne fell in love with him and, loath to see him die, secretly gave him a spool of thread by which he could trace his way from the maze. Theseus slew the Minotaur and fled from Crete, carrying Ariadne away as his wife, but when they arrived at the island of Naxos the Olympic gods shrouded his mind with forgetfulness and he deserted her while she lay asleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flora and the Zephyrs

painting date: 1898
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 45 x 29 in
location: Private Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Juliet

painting date: 1898
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 70 x 46.5 cm
location: Private Collection

 

Also known as 'The Blue Necklace'.

 

 

 

 

 

A Roman Offering

painting date: circa 1890
medium: Oil on canvas

This painting is very similar in composition to 'Arranging Flowers'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arranging Flowers

painting date: circa 1890
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 68.5 x 25.5 cm

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flora

painting date: circa 1890
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 102 x 68 cm
location: Private Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Orange Gatherers

painting date: circa 1890
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 115.6 x 80 cm
location: Private Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mermaid (Study)

painting date: circa 1892
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 14 x 10 in
location: Kelley Gallery, Pasadena, California, USA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Merman

painting date: circa 1892
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 17 x 29 in (43.1 x 73.6 cm)
location: Private Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Naiad (Study)

painting date: circa 1893
location: Private Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

La Belle Dame Sans Merci (Study)

painting date: circa 1893
medium: Oil on panel
size: 36.8 x 29.5 cm
location: Private Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gathering Summer Flowers in a Devonshire Garden

painting date: circa 1893-1910
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 30 x 20 in
location: Private Collection

 

 

This painting was sold by Christies in March 1995. The following text is taken from their catalogue:

Waterhouse's sister-in-law Emily, married the landscape painter Peregrine Feeney, who built a house at Baggy Point, Croyde in Devon, after leaving Primrose Hill in 1892. The present picture can be dated between 1893 and 1910 when both Waterhouse and his wife, Esther, were frequent visitors to the cottage in Croyde. Few examples of his work from this period are in existence today.

The lady depicted in the rose filled garden may be the artist's wife. She bears a resemblance to the portrait of Esther that Waterhouse completed in 1894 which is now in the Sheffield City Art Gallery. It seems feasible that she may have posed for the picture on one of their visits to Devon, although the exact identity of the figure is difficult to ascertain from her features alone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Head of a Girl

painting date: circa 1896
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 35 x 25 cm
location: Private Collection

Possibly a study for one of the figures in 'Hylas and the Nymphs'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mariana in the South

painting date: circa 1897
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 114 x 74 cm
location: Private Collection

The character Mariana in William Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure' is the jilted lover of Angelo, the acting governor of Vienna. Angelo abuses the powers of government invested in him by the duke, by offering to pardon Isabella's brother, Claudio, who has been sentenced to death for seduction, if she will sacrifice her honour to him. The duke, disguised as a friar, learns of Angelo's terrible conduct and contrives Claudio's escape. The ruse is for Isabella to consent to attend Angelo's house at midnight, but to send Mariana in her place, thereby foiling Angelo's designs whilst liberating Claudio. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, made Mariana the subject of two poems, 'Mariana' and its sequel 'Mariana in the South', dwelling on her abject despair as she waits in the lonely moated grange for her lover to return, while her surroundings decay around her. Her tears fall night and morning and she cannot draw pleasure from anything in heaven or on earth. Tormented by haunting voices from her past, she is overcome by weariness and yearns for death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mariana in the South (Study)

painting date: circa 1897
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 131 x 81 cm
location: Leighton House (Hammersmith and Fulham Archives), London, England