.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The dark haired Pompeian beauty is shown frontally and half-length, gazing directly at her admirers. She wears a golden necklace, a faithful copy of a fifth-century Greco-Etruscan original, and a sheer purple dress with a golden-coloured tunic. A green drape fills the background. While the picture is shamelessly direct it is also a tender evocation of young womanhood.
Godward executed a number of 'ideal heads' during his career, often in profile. Free of narrative and action they simply concentrate on the beauty of form and colour. A Pompeian Lady perfectly exemplifies Godward's superlative skill at depicting the different textures of warm skin tones and diaphanous and richly coloured fabrics. He depicts a type of feminine beauty rather than a specific identity and focuses on graceful sensual form and subtle colour harmonies to achieve an aesthetic form of Classicism.
We are grateful to Professor Vern G. Swanson for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.
Godward executed a number of 'ideal heads' during his career, often in profile. Free of narrative and action they simply concentrate on the beauty of form and colour. A Pompeian Lady perfectly exemplifies Godward's superlative skill at depicting the different textures of warm skin tones and diaphanous and richly coloured fabrics. He depicts a type of feminine beauty rather than a specific identity and focuses on graceful sensual form and subtle colour harmonies to achieve an aesthetic form of Classicism.
We are grateful to Professor Vern G. Swanson for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.