JOHN WILLIAM WATERHOUSE PAINTINGS FOR SALE & BIOGRAPHY

JOHN WILLIAM WATERHOUSE

British, 1849-1917

BIOGRAPHY
'John William Waterhouse was born in 1849 in Rome, where his father worked as a painter. After moving back to England, Waterhouse assisted his father in his studio and made copies at the National Gallery whilst attending the South Kensington School. He entered the Royal Academy schools in London in 1870 and began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1874 with the painting Sleep and his Half-brother Death. He became an associate member of the Royal Academy in 1885 and full member in 1895. Waterhouse was also elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour in 1883 though he resigned in 1889.

Waterhouse's early works were of classical themes in the spirit of Alma-Tadema and Frederic Leighton. Consulting the Oracle brought him favourable reviews; It was purchased by Sir Henry Tate, who also purchased The Lady of Shalott from the 1888 Academy exhibition. The latter reveals Waterhouse's growing interest in themes associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, particularly tragic or powerful femmes fatales, as well as plein-air painting. In the mid-1880s Waterhouse began exhibiting paintings such as Mariamne (1889), in England and abroad as part of the international Symbolist movement.

Waterhouse exhibited at the Society of British Artists, Dudley Gallery, Grosvenor Gallery and its successor, the New Gallery, as well as provincial exhibitions in Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. He received a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 in Paris.' (Benezit, Dictionary of Artists, Gründ, 2006)

Mark Murray Fine Paintings is a New York gallery specializing in buying and selling 19th century and early 20th century artwork.