English 1861-1922 Godward was a Victorian Neo-classicist, and therefore a follower in theory of Frederic Leighton. However, he is more closely allied stylistically to Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, with whom he shared a penchant for the rendering of Classical architecture, in particular, static landscape features constructed from marble. The vast majority of Godward's extant images feature women in Classical dress, posed against these landscape features, though there are some semi-nude and fully nude figures included in his oeuvre (a notable example being In The Tepidarium (1913), a title shared with a controversial Alma-Tadema painting of the same subject that resides in the Lady Lever Art Gallery). The titles reflect Godward's source of inspiration: Classical civilisation, most notably that of Ancient Rome (again a subject binding Godward closely to Alma-Tadema artistically), though Ancient Greece sometimes features, thus providing artistic ties, albeit of a more limited extent, with Leighton. Given that Classical scholarship was more widespread among the potential audience for his paintings during his lifetime than in the present day, meticulous research of detail was important in order to attain a standing as an artist in this genre. Alma-Tadema was, as well as a painter, an archaeologist who attended historical sites and collected artefacts that were later used in his paintings: Godward, too, studied such details as architecture and dress, in order to ensure that his works bore the stamp of authenticity. In addition, Godward painstakingly and meticulously rendered those other important features in his paintings, animal skins (the paintings Noon Day Rest (1910) and A Cool Retreat (1910) contain superb examples of such rendition) and wild flowers (Nerissa (1906), illustrated above, and Summer Flowers (1903) are again excellent examples of this). The appearance of beautiful women in studied poses in so many of Godward's canvases causes many newcomers to his works to categorise him mistakenly as being Pre-Raphaelite, particularly as his palette is often a vibrantly colourful one. However, the choice of subject matter (ancient civilisation versus, for example, Arthurian legend) is more properly that of the Victorian Neoclassicist: however, it is appropriate to comment that in common with numerous painters contemporary with him, Godward was a 'High Victorian Dreamer', producing beautiful images of a world which, it must be said, was idealised and romanticised, and which in the case of both Godward and Alma-Tadema came to be criticised as a world-view of 'Victorians in togas'.  Related Paintings of John William Godward :. | Classical Beauty | A Priestess | Noonday Rest | At the Garden Shrine, Pompeii | Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder |
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Ivana Kobilca
Ivana Kobilca (20 December 1861 - 4 December 1926) was a Slovene realist painter who lived, worked and studied in various European cities including Vienna, Sarajevo, Berlin, Paris and Munich. She was a member of Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris. Many of her paintings are still lifes, portraits or country settings. She later tended toward impressionism. Her best known paintings are Kofetarica (Coffeemadam), 1888; Citrarica (The Zitherist), Likarice (Women Ironers), 1891; Holandsko dekle (A Dutch Girl), Portret sestre Fani (Portrait of Sister Fani), 1889; and Poletje (Summer), 1889.
Samuel King
1748-1819 Samuel King Gallery American painter, carver and nautical instrument maker. He was the son of Benjamin King, a mathematical and nautical instrument maker of Newport, RI. Samuel King's early portrait of the Rev. Ezra Stiles (New Haven, CT, Yale U. A.G.) is undoubtedly his masterpiece and a tour de force of symbolism. The portrait was begun in 1770 and completed on 1 August 1771. It shows the interest of the instrument maker in detail and exactitude of delineation. King's other known portraits show no such originality and in the main reflect compositions taken from portraits known to have been hanging in Newport at the time or from English prints. Since Samuel King and Charles Bird King (unrelated) were neighbours on Clarke Street in Newport, he probably influenced Charles Bird King. Washington Allston and Ann Hall (1792-1863) were both Samuel King's pupils.
Pier Francesco Guala
(15 September 1698 - 27 February 1757), also known as Pierfrancesco and Pietro Francesco, was an eighteenth-century Italian painter active for the most part in the region of his place of birth, Casale Monferrato. Guala was the seventh of eight siblings of whom only he and a sister survived infancy. His mother died when he was five and he was brought up by his father, Lorenzo, who himself was a painter and perhaps related to the architect Sebastiano Guala. Pier Francesco Guala died in Milan on 27 February 1757.