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A Pompeian Lady - John William Godward - Canvas Oil Painting brings gallery-caliber art into everyday spaces. This portrait oil painting is a 100% hand painted oil painting on canvas, created for buyers who want genuine refined canvas wall art instead of a mass-produced poster or paper print.
1904
Oil on canvas
Private Collection.
Though greatly influenced by his mentor, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, John William Godward distinguishes himself through his striking images of a single female model. In his study of Victorian painters of classical subjects, Christopher Wood described Godward as: "the best, and most serious of Alma-Tadema's followers.... All his life he devoted himself only to classical subjects, invariably involving girls in classical robes on marble terraces, but painted with a degree of technical mastery that almost rivals that of Alma-Tadema. Godward was also an admirer of Lord Leighton, and his figures do sometimes achieve a monumentality lacking in the work of most of Alma-Tadema's followers" (Christopher Wood, Olympian Dreamers, Victorian Classical Painters 1860 - 1914, London, 1983, p. 247).
In the present work, Godward presents a seated model within a tondo, seen in profile from the left and looking out over a faraway Mediterranean vista. The composition provides Godward with a showcase for his unrivaled mastery of painting textures: the diaphanous sea-green stola, (the feminine form of the ancient Roman toga), translucent against her smooth skin which rests against the warm fur of the tiger's pelt, the variegated marble, and the model's red hair, tied with a thin pink ribbon, all framed against a deep maroon drape. Brilliantly arranged within this circular composition, Godward displays many of the hallmarks of the wider aesthetic movement prevalant at the end of the century, promoting the importance of formal and sensual qualities over visual narrative.
Copyright letters exist for most of Godward's paintings from 1904, the year the present work was completed, and it may be possible that the artist’s title was not used by his dealer, Thomas McLean (namely A Pompeian Lady). Of the works placed with McLean in 1904, there are three possible titles for this painting: Aspasia, Contemplation, and Meditation.
Our artists reproduce this figurative composition in oil on canvas by hand, preserving the tonal range that makes portrait oil painting so sought after for a bedroom.
Materials matter for refined wall decor. That is why this piece is built on artist-grade canvas with lightfast oil colors, applied by hand rather than output from a printer, and sealed for long-term display.
Style it over a fireplace, behind a reading chair, or along a staircase. Wherever it goes, this refined oil painting wall decor adds the layered color that only a hand painted canvas provides.
Browse our John William Godward Paintings selection for related figurative canvases, or commission this figurative image in a custom size. Every order is a hand painted oil painting, never a printed poster.
| Size | Price |
|---|---|
| 20 X 20 in | $99.98 |
| 24 X 24 in | $130.48 |
| 30 X 30 in | $165.48 |
| 36 X 36 in | $239.98 |
| 40 X 40 in | $279.98 |
| 48 X 48 in | $390.48 |
The sizes shown are the reproduction canvas sizes we paint to order. The dimensions given in a work's description refer to the original artwork and will differ from the sizes offered here. Not sure? Read the size guide or e-mail us.
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Every canvas is painted by hand in oils on artist-grade stretched canvas, with an extra blank border left for framing. How to care for your painting.
Measurements are on the size guide, or e-mail [email protected] and we reply within one business day.
