John William Godward

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John William Godward (August 9, 1861 - December 13, 1922) was an English neo-classicist and pre-Raphaelitist artist. He was a protégé of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, but the style of his drawings was different from the generally accepted one. Not received recognition of his work during his lifetime.

John William Godward was born August 9, 1861 in Wimbledon, in a respectable, wealthy Victorian family. He was the eldest of the five children of the Godwards. His father, a bank clerk, believed that his sons should acquire a stable and respectable profession in insurance or banking.

But John began attending the evening classes of the local art school, the artist, architect and designer class of William Hoff Wontner. Godward worked with Wontner in the evenings during the years 1879-1881. He mastered the art of drawing perspectives and architectural elements during this period.

It is known that John Godward was studying at Clapham School of Art. The artist’s first work “Yellow Turban” at the exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1887 received favorable reviews from critics. Since 1888, Godward’s paintings have been sold in galleries and until 1905 are regularly exhibited at the exhibitions of the Royal Academy.

The unwillingness of loved ones to take a passion for his son in painting led to the rupture of his relationship with his family: in 1889 he moved to Chelsea, where he rented a one-story house.
In 1894, Godward acquired his own spacious studio. He used his house as an interior for his paintings, decorated it inside like an ancient Roman building with gazebos and fountains in the garden.
In 1912, Godward left England and moved to live in Rome. There is an opinion that he left London, rushing after one of his Italian models, that his mother never forgave for him. Godward lived in a studio on Monti Parioli near the main entrance to the garden of Villa Borghese.

In 1919, he returned to England. The last years of Godward’s life were overshadowed by the harassment that the British critic had unleashed against him. At the age of 61, he committed suicide by writing "The world was not big enough for me and Picasso." His deed had such an annoying effect on the family that they burned all his papers. Thus, we do not have any of his photographs. Buried at Brompton cemetery.