John William Waterhouse, R.A. (1849-1917)

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The Property of Dr John Physick,C.B.E. Drawings by John William Waterhouse (lots 162-173) These interesting drawings appear to come from one or more sketchbooks that Waterhouse was using between about 1897 and his death twenty years later. Most of the drawings are rough sketches, first ideas for pictures some of which he never carried out. A few, however, are more finished studies for heads, hands, or, in one case, an eye. In 1949 a group of sketchbooks containing similar drawings by Waterhouse was given to the Print Room at the Victoria and Albert Museum by Dr John Physick, C.B.E., the artist's great-nephew and the vendor of the present group of drawings. As Dr Physick recalled in 2000 when Christie's sold Waterhouse's St Cecilia for £6.6 million, James Laver, the Keeper of the Print Room at the time of his gift, predicted that although the sketchbooks were then practically worthless, they would be 'worth a lot of money' in thirty years time. The references are to Peter Trippi, J.W. Waterhouse, London and New York, 2000, and Anthony Hobson, The Art and Life of J.W. Waterhouse, RA, London, 1980.

John William Waterhouse, R.A. (1849-1917)

Study for 'Cupid and Psyche' (verso); and Study for 'Flora and the Zephyrs' (verso)

Details

John William Waterhouse, R.A. (1849-1917)
Study for 'Cupid and Psyche' (verso); and Study for 'Flora and the Zephyrs' (verso)
pencil, unframed
10 1/8 x 7 in. (26 x 17.8 cm.)

Provenance

By descent to the vendor, the artist's great nephew.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The quite highly finished drawing on the recto clearly represents Cupid's first sight of Psyche, whom he finds sleeping by a well. The composition is reminiscent of Burne-Jones's treatment of this subject in the 1860s. Waterhouse himself seems to have taken it no further, although he exhibited Psyche subjects at the Royal Academy in 1903 and 1904.

The rougher sketches on the verso relate to Flora and the Zephyrs (Trippi, pl. 125), exhibited at the RA in 1898. This suggests that they may be the earliest drawings in the group.

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