JOHN WILLIAM GODWARD, R.B.A. (BRITISH, 1861-1922)
JOHN WILLIAM GODWARD, R.B.A. (BRITISH, 1861-1922)
JOHN WILLIAM GODWARD, R.B.A. (BRITISH, 1861-1922)
2 更多
This lot has been imported from outside of the UK … 顯示更多 Property from a Distinguished Private Collection (Lots 16, 22-24)
JOHN WILLIAM GODWARD, R.B.A. (BRITISH, 1861-1922)

Songs without Words

細節
JOHN WILLIAM GODWARD, R.B.A. (BRITISH, 1861-1922)
Songs without Words
signed and dated 'J. W. GODWARD. 1918.' (lower left) and further signed, inscribed and dated 'SONGS WITHOUT WORDS./J.W. GODWARD/ROME 1918' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
23 ¾ x 31 ½ in. (60.3 x 80 cm.)
來源
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Belgravia, 23 March 1981, lot 77.
with Roy Miles Fine Paintings, London.
with Emanuel Vozner, Gallery 68, Toronto.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 17 October 1991, lot 82, possibly where purchased by the family of the present owner.
出版
V. Swanson, John William Godward: The Eclipse of Classicism, Woodbridge, 1997, pp. 124, 243, no. 1918.12, illustrated col. pl. 99.
V. Swanson, John William Godward: The Eclipse of Classicism, Woodbridge, 2018, 2nd edition, p. 317, no. 1918.9.
注意事項
This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

榮譽呈獻

Sarah Reynolds
Sarah Reynolds Specialist, Head of Sale

拍品專文


John William Godward was a shy and reclusive artist, which has resulted in something of a dearth of information concerning his life and works. He belonged to the second generation of classical painters who followed in the footsteps of Frederic, Lord Leighton and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and is now recognised as one of the major neo-classicists, a painter of considerable technical skill with an immediately recognisable aesthetic. Song without Words dates from what Professor Vern Swanson has termed Godward's ‘Middle Roman Years’. Godward moved to Rome in 1912, and would spend nearly 10 years there before returning to London in 1921, a year before his death. Both the Italian climate and the ever-present historic heritage of the Eternal City served as an inspiration for the backdrops of the artist’s Greco-Roman images, which frequently depict a single female figure in classical dress set against a Mediterranean view or within a classical interior.
Song without Words belongs to a series of similar compositions in which the figure is seated on a marble bench with a calm blue sea behind her forming a stark horizon. The beautiful girl, in her striking orange gown, holds a flute in both hands. Her impulse to play has been halted by the captivating song of the small caged meadowlark, whose voice is implicitly of such beauty that it requires no real accompaniment. A watercolour version of the subject appeared in 1919. The paintings created while the artist was in Rome are among the most iconic examples of his style, and all convey a feeling of serenity which transports the viewer to another time and place.

更多來自 英國及歐洲藝術

查看全部
查看全部