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Marcella by John William Godward is one of those images that never dates. Our studio recreates it as a hand painted oil painting — textured, color-rich, and ready to hang as canvas wall art in a hallway, study, or reception area.
1912
Oil on canvas
Marcella illustrates John William Godward's extraordinary talent as a colorist and draftsman. Set against masterfully recreated marble and painted with a controlled palette, the model is placed in profile — a pose that both emulates the figures on ancient Roman coins and allows the viewer to easily observe her graceful neck, blushed cheeks, and long eyelashes. Her chestnut hair is tied with a golden ribbon, and her diaphanous rose stola is fastened with pearls and tied with a green ribbon featuring a Greek key pattern.
Godward achieved the height of his fame in Britain and Internationally in 1910 and 1911, and he relocated to Rome in 1912, when the present work was painted, where he lived in one of the “studii di Pittura e Scultura” of the Villa Stohl-Fern. From its construction in 1879 by the Alsatian Alfred Wilhelm Strohl-Fern, the studio complex had provided seclusion for painters from Arnold B?cklin to Ilya Repin in which to find inspiration. Escaping the pressures of London, Godward likely enjoyed the villa’s expansive gardens, both for their abundant, diverse botanicals and the many Roman sculptures that were set there. Yet Godward was not in Rome to holiday; consumed by an almost obsessive interest in female beauty, he toiled away in his studio and built an oeuvre of glamorous, youthful and humidly sultry classical maidens. Indeed, upon visiting his fellow artist in the winter of 1912-3, Sir William Russell Flint found that Godward “worked steadily at his Greek maidens,” with Marcella among the works the focused artist completed in this prolific period (Swanson, pp. 100-1). Their elegant profiles and diaphanous robes are set upon backgrounds of cool reflective marble and underscored by mythic titles, confirming Godward’s infatuation with Antiquity; his paintings are as enduring and iconic as the smoldering beauties that he represents.
Every hand painted oil painting in this fine art series is finished on artist-grade canvas and checked against the original before it leaves the studio.
From primer to varnish, the work is done manually on artist-grade canvas. The absence of digital printing is deliberate: it keeps the fine art brushwork visible and gives the vintage oil painting wall decor a museum-like finish.
As hallway wall art, this canvas brings color and texture without visual noise. It scales well from a small study to a large hallway feature wall, and it is a reliable choice when shopping for fine art oil painting as a gift.
| Size | Price |
|---|---|
| 20 X 24 in | $87.98 |
| 24 X 36 in | $134.48 |
| 30 X 40 in | $185.98 |
| 36 X 48 in | $238.48 |
| 48 X 72 in | $481.48 |
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.
Free on orders over $60; a flat $5 below that. Dispatched in 1–2 business days; 30 days to send it back. Full policy.
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.
