Artist: John William Waterhouse

I love art and on Tuesdays I take a moment and review an artist's work who I have not looked at in a while. This evening I was thinking about the romantic images of John WIlliam Waterhouse. He was an English painter who worked in the Pre-Raphaelite style even though when he was painting the style had gone out of vogue. He borrowed smidgeons of the ideas from the Impressionists who were his contemporaries and blended this with the techniques of earlier Pre-Raphaelites. He painted primarily women. Ophelia and The Lady of Shallot were favorite subjects. He often depicted women from mythology or the Arthurian romance tales. Many of his paintings are on display in major British art galleries. In my opinion his painting show a love and respect for women. He painted wicked women and women with power in addition to those who died for love. His painting of Cleopatra shows her leaning back with her arms above her head. It is a stance of casual power. Another painting is of Circe who turned Odysseus' men into pigs. One of his depictions is of a witch casting a magic circle. His painting are beautiful and mesmerizing.