J W Waterhouse

Nice exhibition at the Royal Academy of the work of John William Waterhouse.

This was much better than I’d expected. I must admit the finding Waterhouse a bit chocolate boxy but I’d missed placed him as a late Pre-Raphaelite and not realized how much later he was. He brought together the ideas of the Pre-Raphs with the Impressionist techniques which were coming in from France. I had not realized that by the end of his life he was contemporary with Picasso and Cezanne.

It was worth taking the tape tour as it brought out the sociological ideas behind the pictures and how they reflect the changing roles of women and the Freudian theories which were coming in.

The pictures were not as glossy as I expected but had a rougher freer finished. I would like to have known more about the dresses in the pictures. In one case I felt one was used again which implied to me that they might be real not imagined.

The exhibition however did not work in the space it had (Sackler Wing). I went on a Saturday and it was heaving with people. It was impossible to get any distance from the pictures and most of the time you nearly had your nose pressed up against them! I usually love these galleries but on this occasion they pictures and demand were too big for the space.

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