John William Waterhouse Lot 144
John William Waterhouse, R.A. (1849-1917)
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John William Waterhouse, R.A. (1849-1917)

Miss Betty Pollock

Details
John William Waterhouse, R.A. (1849-1917)
Miss Betty Pollock
signed and dated 'J.W. Waterhouse 1911' (lower right)
oil on canvas
36 x 28 ¼ in. (91.5 x 72 cm.)
Provenance
The sitter's father, Sir Adrian Pollock, and by descent.
Literature
A. Hobson, The Art and Life of J.W. Waterhouse, London, 1980, p. 81, pl. 67 and p. 191, no. 181.
A. Noakes, Waterhouse, Oxford, 2004, p. 176.
Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, 1912, no. 185.
Liverpool, Liverpool Academy, Autumn Exhibition, 1912, no. 956 (lent by Sir Adrian Pollock).

Brought to you by

Clare Keiller
Clare Keiller

Lot Essay

Like so many artists who had made their names painting literary, historical and symbolist subjects, Waterhouse found himself increasingly turning to portraiture as the taste for subject pictures declined towards the end of the Victorian era. His sitters were invariably young girls or women, which is not surprising in view of the nature of his subject pictures, in which women always play a central role, as victims, temptresses, or simply vehicles for the artist's concept of beauty. While this obviously made him happiest with female sitters, patrons no doubt saw him as ideally suited to paint their wives or daughters. Many of his sitters belonged to the Henderson family, his chief patrons during his later years.

The sitter in this present portrait is Elizabeth (Betty) Pollock (1898-1970), daughter of Sir Adrian Pollock, K.C.M.G. (1867-1943). He was Remembrancer of the City of London between 1903 and 1912, and subsequently for many years City Chamberlain and Treasurer, a post which brought him a knighthood in 1921. Betty was born in 1898, it is said in the Speaker's House in the House of Commons, although if this was so, the circumstances are unclear. In later life she enjoyed a successful career on the stage. Her obituary in the Daily Telegraph described her as 'one of the most subtly gifted mimics on the London stage during the 30s'. She was fêted by Noel Coward and Ivor Novello, who both devised roles especially for her in which she gave a series of brilliant 'take-offs' of famous people.

Waterhouse probably met the Pollocks through the actor-manager Gerald du Maurier, who was a friend of both parties. His portrait, which shows the sitter at the age of fourteen and captures a certain sense of adolescent shyness, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1912, together with his late masterpiece Penelope and her Suitors (Aberdeen Art Gallery; Hobson, pl. 77). It is not clear if the portrait's background represents some actual scene or is a creation of the artist's imagination, but lily-ponds were very much part of Waterhouse's oeuvre, featuring, for example, in an Ophelia of 1894 and the famous Hylas and the Nymphs a few years later (Hobson, pls. 165 and 86). It would not have been difficult for him to transpose this familiar motif from a subject picture to a portrait, making Betty Pollock herself into a kind of Ophelia.

We are grateful to Peter Trippi for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.

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