Thursday, August 7, 2014

J W Waterhouse by Anthony Hobson (1989)

OK not a vintage book, but a book about one of the great vintage Artists.

Hobson provides a nice chronology of the life of the great Waterhouse. His works have probably been seen by most of the civilized world even thought they don't know his name.






I became interested when he kept popping up every time I looked for images of the classics. Waterhouse unabashedly painted young women in vulnerable or tender moments, extracting these images from his extensive reading of the classics and of the great writers of his time. Now I need to pick up some Tennyson.





The book has a large (but not all) collection of his works, the website even has the locations of pieces on public view, now we make sure to see them as we travel. 





Without a doubt one of his finest works. Waterhouse was good from an early age and came from a family of artists; it always helps.