John William Godward

John William Godward was an English painter who worked in a strict classical style even as modern art rose around him. Born in London in 1861, he painted beautiful women in flowing robes, posed against marble terraces and blue Mediterranean skies. His work is marked by dazzling skill in rendering skin, fabric, flowers, and above all the cool sheen of marble.

He was a follower of the fashionable classical painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and his serene, decorative scenes were popular for a time. As tastes turned sharply against such work, his career declined, and he died in 1922. Godward's exquisite technique has since won renewed appreciation among lovers of classical painting.