Along the shore

William Margetson trained at the South Kensington School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools and falls into the camp of the classical revivalist painters such as Alma-Tadema and Lord Leighton. Interested in ancient myth and legend, he exhibited Cleopatra at the Royal Academy in 1904. However, it was his series of paintings of solitary girls, often on beaches that became well-known to the public after being issued as prints. In the present work Margetson contrasts the beauty of the female form with that of nature, a theme he returned to on many occasions.