Lot Essay
In a letter from Thomas McLean to Godward, he writes: 'We write to say that we will buy your small upright picture entitled, At the Garden Shrine, Pompeii at 75 British pounds, the copyright remaining in your possession'. This amount is interesting in that it gives a sense of Godward's prices at the time for a 'small upright picture'. In order to turn a profit, McLean would have had to ask 150 pounds for the picture. This was a hefty amount by the standards of his day and translated into today's money would equal about $7000!"(Swanson, pp. 182-3).
Set in an ancient garden courtyard, Godward's classical lady poses with one hand resting on a tiger skin rug, the other holding a rose which she smells. She stands before an aediculum that houses two personal statuettes and a traditional incense burner. In the foreground, set on a lion-headed trapezophorus table, he added objects such as a red-figured Greek hydria and pieces of Roman glass to embellish the atmosphere of this courtyard. The marriage of his brushwork to his extraordinary palette of colors results in a range of textures - the cold and hard feel of the marble next to the soft and ephemeral fabric of the model's purple and green toga. Godward's precise rendering of the foreground elements stands in contrast to the more 'impressionistic' treatment of the background, sensitively altering the effects of light and color to produce an atmospheric effect. Not only do his artistic imitations of the classical world reveal attention to decorative detail, but reinforce the desire to keep alive the glory of a time long past.
There is a related pencil study of the lady in the present composition entitled Sketch of a Roman Couple (circa 1892) still in the Godward family's collection.
Set in an ancient garden courtyard, Godward's classical lady poses with one hand resting on a tiger skin rug, the other holding a rose which she smells. She stands before an aediculum that houses two personal statuettes and a traditional incense burner. In the foreground, set on a lion-headed trapezophorus table, he added objects such as a red-figured Greek hydria and pieces of Roman glass to embellish the atmosphere of this courtyard. The marriage of his brushwork to his extraordinary palette of colors results in a range of textures - the cold and hard feel of the marble next to the soft and ephemeral fabric of the model's purple and green toga. Godward's precise rendering of the foreground elements stands in contrast to the more 'impressionistic' treatment of the background, sensitively altering the effects of light and color to produce an atmospheric effect. Not only do his artistic imitations of the classical world reveal attention to decorative detail, but reinforce the desire to keep alive the glory of a time long past.
There is a related pencil study of the lady in the present composition entitled Sketch of a Roman Couple (circa 1892) still in the Godward family's collection.