Rauner Special Collections Library

PDF Scanning Request

Dartmouth College• 6065 Webster Hall, Hanover, NH 03755
rauner.reference@dartmouth.edu• TEL: (603) 646-0538• FAX: (603) 646-0447

Name: t-� --fv1 -- \

(..I
I Date: '7)J1/1g-
Email Address: b� � / - ; I l er) d4 }r ,-i1°V' � LJ J
Mailing Address:
(for billing)

Type of Copy (Circle one): COLOR PDF SCAN PAPER PHOTOCOPY

Fee (Circle one): DC ON-SITE (.10/scan) OTHER ON-SITE (.25/scan) OFF-SITE (.SO/scan)
CHART STRING ( College OnlJ?:

I
Estimated STAFF
Description of each item (Title/Collection/Box/Folder if possible)
Pa£e Count USE
�.V\L ,._'y t ,P.. ls:; tJ ;)C, A-'1'i \ct�'-l"MI/ ��

C...vtf\.-f • � �" t t,,J.... ,' 1,.

A---rr �"'�
\.,04, t:-u hv ... '- � I t""'\ • ....t..c- () I
 •
�

•
_,-------------------�l�

The Art of J. w.
I N the embroidery of Persephone, so the poet tells, bloom
and glow of colour "·ere interwrought with tbe design
of the ordered elements : the concretion of solid earth
in the midst of the blazing firmament, the rhythmic forth­
flo\\·ing of the sea. With star.gold, purple of waters, and
the clear hues of flowers in the grass, the goddest: enric hed
h er web, singing as it brightened. Those colours-the
mighty idea of colour in the universe-are described for us
in the last poem of Jiving paganism, written when none
save a poet could still discern and worship the fairness of
antiquity. And since Claudian wrote, poets alone have divined
in the scheme of Greek though t and feeling the coloured
threads of Persephone, their inwrought lustre of the bloom
of earth, th e sparkle of waves, the fire of sun and stars and
of t he desire of man. The general mind has lost kinship
wit h the sentiment of mythology. To see itself in the guise
of myth and legend, it has need of interpreters to whom
classicism, mediaevalism, are no merely formal modes of
thought. Art pre-eminently-since it seeks in antiquity
not t he form which perishes, but the spirit which is per­
petual life-has power to in terpret to our consciousness
that coloured imagery of the past, to make it reveal anew
its assurance of the ideal in the actual. In myth and
legend especially, those heart felt forms of belief and hope,
t here is, for each age, the reflection of its own questing
spirit; a reflection that it is \Yell we should be enabled to see,
Danae.
By J. W. Waterhouse, R.A. (,892).
Waterhouse, R.A.
for it reconciles the working of our troubled minds with a
mode of beholding that is as "fire to reach to fire." The
reconciliation cannot now be effected in the free intertwining
of sentiments, the picturesque blending of Christ ian and
pagan imagery, which engrossed the artists of the Italian
Renascence. The modern artist feels even the direct charm
of the beautiful old stories with wistful desire for a like
effortless simplicity of expression, flowing so clearly and
steadily from sensation. And how delightful the contents of
t hose tales considered as imagery of what is inmost in thought
and feeling; how enviable a poetry seems the life which
found such lyrical tongue! Tinged with regret for what
we may not recapture, must be our apprehension of the fair
array of the divine adventure as created from the feeling and
r.xperience of a humanity more blessed than we in vision.
T he true interpreter of these essential things must himself
have t urned to t hem as to an inner dream, both part of
existence and apart from it, as dreams are; an influence of
beauty on the whole of life, yet held perhaps most dear for
the kind of loveliness which distinguishes tbe dream from
normal waking. Such an interpretation to our sympathies
of the forms, and still more of newly discerned motives and
interests in old immortal tales, is the art of Mr. J. W.
\Vaterhouse.
For the purposes of a study of art the circumstances of
personal life have place only as they touch the work, are
 .
CHRISTMAS NUMBER
2
THE ART JOURNAL

\ Ophelia.
By J. W. Waterhouse,
R.A.

studio, paint­
ted f or drawing, his fa t
her m ade him useful in t he
reflected into it . Public c onc ern
with them should be lii11i ugh n ot with any idea of
e s ta nd i ng ing backgr ounds to portraits, tho of
to t heir effect in bringing the
artist to the s e lf- u n d r
e fact of being the son
f art. Yet th es e outer his becoming an artist . Th e's e n try i n t o art
e o ous
w hich is the crea tiv e substanc a pa inter, indeed,
made 1v1r. Waterh
n themselves so app
ro priate for the en p are nts
con di t ion s ar e o ften i
a t n o sm ooth e r tha n it generall y is-or was-wh
in som ewh . Mr.
fostering of a special sense
oi beau ty as to be
kno w nothing of t he life
of artists but by p rejudice
e p o int of \'iew , t rad it ion of
e life: from th ait-painter of t he
undefined relationship to t h p erso nal an d Wa terhouse the elder, a portr ical p aint er,
ish b e twe en mbitions as an his tor
that is, which wou l d distingu Wa terhouse, Lawrence, with unsatisfied a suc ce ssful
the case of Mr. t o b e m o r e
resthetic experiences. In his son was l ikely
the i nfl uence require d proof that ke art his
a rt c omm unicates an in ward sense of re he w ou ld allow him to m a
w ho se a l s ig nifi ­ tha n him s elf befo belief
it is, surely, of r e
lder generati on any
of p ast imaginative systems, d had a s fo st er­ c areer. N or had the artis t of an o ly d rud gery
at Rome, an father meant on
c ance that he was born
m o re o ver, t ha t h i s in art- schools. As work wit h his a ss i st an t, t he
woman ; usefulness as a n
m other an Italian coun try- oun din gs, alm ost without any aim beyond ter as an
sed in the surr self a cap a bl e p ain
first year or two were pas lif e in Italy. A problem of h ow t o proY e him con s iderable
tim es, of fa rm- f raug ht wi th
unchanged fr om primit iv e i nitial step to studying art
was
ibaldi's f orces an d those of o , by t his tim e, was
det ermined
few months after his birth, Gar fath er, one of d i fficu ltie s t o t he you th, wh
i n Rome. His
the French came into con flict that an artist he woul d be.
eig n ar tists in the city, shared the crisis self to gain entrance to
t he
the colony o f for
last hero ic outb u rs t of Y oung W aterhouse set him s alea ble p ictu re.
, the and to p aint a.
of mortal resolve and struggle whe n the fam ily R oyal Academy sch ools, ts. Th e
e , and in after y ear s, t e asily, i n b o th a tte mp
national life in Rom mad e H e s ucc eeded, though no
h r y one
his son hear d t ales whic n t o the schools is, as eve
had returned to England, and qualification for admiss io
idea of I t aly i n arms f or frePd om
a wing or cl ay m o
del from the antique.
vividly real the a s t h u s a kn ows, a stippled dr bolus
h onour. Rome, a city an ima
ted with v a l our, w ntique-a cast of the Disco
The ci t y its e lf, thr ou g h his tir. Waterhouse found the a d star ted o n his
od. Museum, an
fam iliar ide a t o his chi ldho :md p rints, w as -in the South Kensington mu lat ed
f m an y dr a wi n gs a dar k cor n er, wit h a ccu
father's talk and the sight o wo nderful yet drawing. T he cast stood in ord of
h he liYed in fa n cy, a win g, a fai thfu l rec
a lways a pl ace in whic dust and dirt upon
it, and the dra
he was now indeed far away, ws, was naturally rej ecte d.
Undaunted,
h ome-li ke pl ace from which lig ht . fals e ligh t s and s h ad o
rn, with w ha t rar e d e of drawing in
but whith er he w ould yet retu edge th ough seeing that
he could m ake no success
Rom e, a nd h i s k n owl e ntrance w ork.
That sense of pa rtly b el ongin
g to d t o model hi s
or y v e ry s t irrin g, an d among suc h con ditions, he determine thi s p rojec t was a
of its aspect, made
ancient hist overc ome in
Dict iona ry w as sing led out as T he first difficulty to be p o u n ds of clay b ack­
school books Smitlz's Clas sical g et som e t hirty
phy s ica l on e: how t o
, again and a gain . ngton and
st ories to be read for pleasure te war ds and forwards be
tween his h ome in Kensi
and s how ed s o me tas
As he ceased to be a schoolboy,