The question was whether he had the nerve and the will to break the parental shackles and become an independent person. This image may not be in the public domain in these countries, which moreover do not implement the rule of the shorter term. This painting by Godward was also the oil by the artist to be placed in the permanent collection of a major art museum when it was given to the Guildhall Art Gallery in London where it is still on show.

One of his most complex and impressive multi-figure painting was completed in 1892, entitled The Playground.

Chelsea, at the end of the nineteenth century, was considered to be the centre of the London art scene.

His next-door neighbour at St Leonard’s Terrace was the American- born British artist and sculptor, William Reynolds-Stephens, who unlike Godward had received artistic training at the Blackheath School of Art and the Royal Academy School where he won the Landseer Scholarship and also a prize for painting.

Artists mainly occupied them, both male and female, most of whom were older than Godward.   Ianthe was a Cretan girl who is mentioned in Ovid’s narrative poem, Metamorphoses.  The garland of violet flowers upon her head probably relate to the fact that the name Ianthe is of Greek origin, and means “violet flower”. Through the doorway we see two men talking.

Godward’s output of work in 1891 was reduced and this has been put down to various possible reasons.

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We’re currently collecting product reviews for this item. In late 1889 Godward finally broke the parental shackles and rented a room, for twenty-four pounds per annum, in a house in St Leonard’s Terrace, Chelsea, close to his St Leonard studio.

The initial push came with the Royal Academy’s acceptance of his painting for that year’s Summer Exhibition, and buoyed by that success in late 1887, he decided to get himself a small atelier in the Bolton Studios in Gilston Road, Kensington. We observe a lady who has broken off from her sewing to amuse herself by trying to balance a peacock plume on her finger.

You may wonder why the likeness of the man in the painting could not be compared with a photograph of Godward himself but the sad fact is that no photograph of John William Godward exists and the reason for this will be explained in the next blog. The beauty of the variegated marble backdrop, the beautiful tunic and sash the lady wears, the beauty of the woman herself and of course not forgetting the subject of the painting, the beauty of the violets she daintily holds in her hand.

In the painting we see a Bacchante, a priestess or female follower of Bacchus, resting on a marble exedra seat, situated on a balcony, high up overlooking the blue Mediterranean Sea.  Her head lolls onto her right shoulder as she looks out at us. It is a symbol of prosperity, fertility, hedonism, and pleasure/enjoyment in general.

In 1891, he had his painting The Sweet Siesta of a Summer Day accepted into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

Another work completed that year was Innocent Amusements with its depiction of an ancient Roman atrium with fountain and marble statue.

He was a protégé of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, but his style of painting fell out of favor with the rise of modern art.

Godward was born in 1861 and lived in Wilton Grove, Wimbledon. As in the case of several other paintings, Godward painted more than one version; in this case, an earlier (and less well-known) 1897 version with a further 1906 version.

He committed suicide at the age of 61 and is said to have written in his suicide note that "the world is not big enough for [both] myself and a Picasso".

His estranged family, who had disapproved of his becoming an artist, were ashamed of his suicide and burned his papers.

A young woman lies stretched out on a marble balcony seat, and faces towards the left of the picture. I am neither an artist nor art historian but I am fascinated with the interpretaion and symbolism used in paintings and love to read about the life of the artists and their subjects.