John William Waterhouse

c'est presque trop beau pour être vrai, mais j'ai entre les mains, le catalogue en français de l'exposition Waterhouse, je crois que l'on peut vraiment remercier nos amis québécois et leur attachement à la langue française, c'est bien le même catalogue que j'ai trouvé à Paris et à Londres, mais tout en français, même les titres des oeuvres sont traduits...
Je l'ai donc commandé par l'intermédiaire de ma libraire de quartier avec la numéro ISBN (ISBN-EAN13 : 9789085864462) que j'ai déjà donné plus haut, car il n'y a pas de nom d'éditeur...
La couverture aussi est différente de celle utilisée pour le catalogue en langue anglaise...

Déjà merci Lady Clare pour le compte rendu de ta visite et je suis triste que tu ai été un peu déçue par la petitesse de cette exposition.
Et merci pour le n°isbn, je pense que je vais me l'offrir, ce catalogue, durant le courant du mois...
Et vive les Québécois alors.

Dans quelques jours (le 2 octobre très précisément) va commencer dans la belle ville de Montréal ce qui est déjà présenté par la presse québécoise comme l'une des expositions phare de la saison :

Citation :

J. W. Waterhouse : le jardin des sortilèges
Musées · Création visuelle
2 oct 2009 au 7 fév 2010
Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal
1380, rue Sherbrooke O., Mtl · (514) 285-1600

Le préraphaélite moderne
Cette première rétrospective montre comment les œuvres de John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) reflètent les enjeux de son temps tels le médiévisme et l'héritage du classicisme, le spiritualisme et le féminisme. L'exposition rassemblera environ 80 œuvres, des tableaux ainsi que des études à l'huile, à la sanguine et au crayon dont plusieurs n'ont jamais été exposées ou montrées depuis sa mort.

J'aime beaucoup ce titre de "Jardin des sortilèges", il nous met tout de suite dans une ambiance féérique...
Je souhaite une bonne visite à nos amis canadiens et j'espère qu'ils nous feront profiter de leurs impressions...

Edit : j'ajoute ce lien avec La Royal Academy of Arts, l'expo "presque comme si on y était"....

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/waterhouse/video-curator-peter-trippi-looks-at-key-works-in-the-exhibition/

Voici la transcription du petit reportage (passionnant ) dont Lady Clare a mis le lien

"The Lady of Shalott" 1888, J.W. Waterhouse, with Curator Peter Trippi

The Lady of Shalott, of 1888, is one of Waterhouse’s most important paintings, because it encapsulates his new found fascination with the pre-Raphaelite tradition.
It is very popular today, but it also was tremendously common to the bond in 1888 when it was shown here at the Royal Academy.

The idea is that this face draws you in and never lets you go. It is something that is extremely profound.

And here we have a story by Tennyson, which is The Lady of Shalott. The lady is a fairy, who for some unknown reason, has been cursed to live in a tower, by the river, near Camelot. And she is condemned to look at life to out the window, but looking at the reflection of a mirror which then shows the world outside.
And as we can see in her tapestry, we see all of that romantic imagery that we associate with the world of Camelot and King Arthur.
Now what undoes this happy enough little curse is that the lady falls in love with Lancelot, the handsome knight. He passes by and in her ardour, she turns away from the mirror, away from her loom (= metier à tisser) and looks out the window directly at Lancelot.
Well, now the curse has come upon her. The mirror shatters and suddenly she realises that her doom must unfold. And that doom involves going down the river, unchaingin the boat, and sailing down the river, singing as she does. And sure enough by the time her body arrives in Camelot, she is dead.

Look at the picture and its photograph-like figure. It is almost as if she could get up and walk off the canvas.
By contrast, the landscape around her is very generalised.
And this is interesting because Waterhouse takes the bold step of bringing this emphatically French impressionist influenced style into a Summer Exhibition.
Now there is a huge debate going on between the Conservatives and the Liberals, regarding how much art could reflect these new French impulses, how acceptable was impressionism.
Well, Waterhouse is taking a very bold stand here: he is grabbing something traditionally, conservatively English, i.e. a Tennyson history, and he is applying it in a very French manner. And he got away with it!

There is something compelling about her expression. It is a look of death coming on, but also a look of salvation and orgasm, that she is entering into another world, she is crossing from the world of living people into the world of the dead.

There are 2 swallows flying off to the left of the picture and they symbolise resurrection. This is a woman who will not die truly, that she may be dead in her boat by the tome she reaches Camelot, but she has been freed.
There is every likelihood that this is a picture of escape, of female power. And indeed, in this period, women were pushing the boundaries. We all know about the “new” woman, the woman who wanted to be educated at university, the woman who wanted to reclaim her own property from her husband. This was all going on in the 1880s. This was modern life. And instead of issuing a diatribe about it, Tennyson wrote a poem about it. And Waterhouse presumably is also thinking about this issue very closely by presenting us with the Lady of Shalott.


J'espère que ça pourra vous aider à apprécier encore plus ce superbe tableau de Waterhouse !

Artémis!!!!!!!!!!!!! mille mercis!!!
Je ne sais pas si vous avez vu, mais il y a neuf oeuvres en tout qui sont commentées et c'est tout aussi passionnant...

Je t'en prie ! C'est un plaisir de pouvoir aider!
Je n'avais pas vu qu'il y avait d'autres oeuvres, c'est super ! J'y fonce !

Merci Artemis pour la retranscription !!!

Dites moi s'il y a d'autres commentaires de tableaux que vous voulez que je retranscrive ! Ce n'est pas très long à faire

Hylas et les nymphes, je veux bien!!

Et voilà !

Il s'agit de la transcription de ceci :

C'est le conservateur Peter Trippi qui parle :

Hylas and the Nymphs, 1896

This painting draws me in every time, because it is so much about the supernatural and simultaneously erotic connection between the boy and the nymphs. It is incredibly, perfectly composed.

“Hylas and the nymphs” of 1896 is a great masterpiece because it rings so many classically “Waterhousely” bells. The fact is that this is a picture that, like The Lady of Shalott, still resonates very loudly today. Because it is about this irresistible connection, a gaze exchanged between a group of 7 figures and a single male. And this idea of desire, of erotic desire, encapsulated very excessively, very palpably in one snapshot. It is something that is timeless. It just goes right across the generations, from the 1890s to today.

If we look at it, we see 7 water-nymphs. They have floated to the surface and now they have seen this beautiful boy who was drawing water from the pool. And this is rooted in classical myth : Ovid tales the tale of the lover of Hercules, Hylas, a gay lover, who comes from the Argonauts ship to the pool on this little island to get water for the men. He sees the girls, they see him, they lure him into the pool, he drawns.

Now traditionally in British art, and really in all art, it is depicted as an abduction, as a situation where the femme fatale, the dangerous woman, draws the man down into a doom, which is bleak, that the woman has conquered the man.
We believe that Waterhouse is absolutely not going in that direction. Instead, it is an ambiguous and symbolist picture, which leaves it open as to whether the boy is voluntarily coming into the pool or the girls are tricking him.

We see especially the gaze, which is very intense. And we also see the way that that most aggressive of the nymphs is touching the arm. It is very sensual. It seems extremely passionate and hard-felt. And that is something many critics observed when they saw the picture for the first time.

With Waterhouse, we also have to be aware of the idea of metamorphosis. We see 7 water-nymphs. Now these are actually water-lilies who have floated to the surface of the pool.
Now, why do they all look the same? Is it because Waterhouse is boring and can only think to paint one woman? No!!! It is because water-lily flowers all look the same as well. They are meant to be essentially transformations of flowers into women.
Waterhouse was almost certainly interested in the interconnection of life forms. And that comes from Darwin in part. Darwin changed the history of world thought. Because after all, he was reminding us that fundamentally human beings emerged from apes. And so, Waterhouse probably picks us upon that again and again, not just from Ovid and his Metamorphoses but also from Darwin, this idea that all living things are interconnected. Even flowers and human beings are somehow linked.

It is not in any way an abduction. It is not something sinister, it is something enchanting. For me, it is completely authentic and that is something that one really comes across in life.

merci!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

voici le tableau en question :



Vous avez remarqué la ceinture rouge de Hylas??? Chez Waterhouse, celui qui est tenté porte souvent cette marque distinctive...

Voici un autre tableau, Sainte Eulalie, toujours commenté par le spécialiste de Waterhouse, Peter Trippi.

Voici le tableau dont il s'agit :


Ces mini reportages sont vraiment passionnants, car en 4 ou 5 minutes, Peter Trippi nous présente une oeuvre majeure de Waterhouse, en résumant l'histoire peinte, en quoi ce tableau est important dans l'oeuvre de l'artiste, et il attire notre attention sur les détails ou points majeurs de l'oeuvre. Génial

Le mini reportage est celui ci :

Pour vous aider, voici la transcription

Saint Eulalia – 1885

Saint Eulalia of 1885 is a breakthrough picture for J. W. Waterhouse because this is the one that got him elected into the Royal Academy as an associate; because it is an absolute, stop-in-your-tracks picture. No one could walk by this painting and ignore it, partly because of its story, that is extremely shocking and violent, and partly because of its size and technique.

In 1885, when St Eulalia was shown, it was immediately commented […] with terms such as “unforgettable”, “horrifying”, “bizarre”, “curious”. Now what the critics meant was: why would anyone choose the martyrdom of a 12 year old girl in 4th century Spain as a subject? This was a story not known by British people, and barely by any Spanish people, for that matter.

It is an obscure tale from lives of the saints. It is about a girl, 12 years old, who is a Christian. She refuses to worship the pagan gods. She is ordered by the Roman magistrate to recant (= se dédire), to give up her Christian faith and to worship the Roman gods. And she refuses. Therefore in history we are told, she was horribly murdered. She was basically torn apart and her hair was set on fire.

Waterhouse understands that he needs to turn it down. He wants to communicate the real power of the martyrdom and the miracle that follows, but he also wants to be true to the power of it. What Waterhouse does then is give us the body facing us, the hair is blowing like blood, and across the body is a red garment which reminds us of blood.
Also to the right, there is a crucifix. And in fact, Eulalia was not crucified at all, but everyone knows the idea of crucifix equals martyrdom. That is just a common trope in Christianity.

Standing behind Eulalia is the centurion who represents the power of the Roman Empire, obviously the magistrate who sentenced her to death. And the guard represents sheer imperial might.

The most exciting part of the miracle of St Eulalia was that God decided apparently to cover the naked body with fresh snow. Now it is the month of August in Spain, it is not supposed to snow. A miracle is occurring before the eyes of these people.

I think what is remarkable to me about St Eulalia, in addition to its remarkable story, is its remarkable colouring. It is beautifully toned and in particular the whites are remarkable. The way that he is able to show the contrasts between white doves, white snow, even white marble is really virtuosic, and got a lot of praise from the critics at the time.
And indeed, this got him such a claim that he was elected into the Royal Academy as an associate. He was now on the track to an official recognition by a very broad public.

Many people have commented then and now about the sexiness, the availability of this naked female body. But I think it is very pertinent: she is a young girl, she has not yet reached puberty, she is exposed and yet at the same time I would like to think that there is a kind of respectfulness, that it is not disgusting or erotic in a vulgar way, that there is a king of delicacy about this, which shows Waterhouse’s sense of discretion.

The body and the way it is fallen in a cross-like form is striking. We see a man here who can draw impeccably, but we also sense movement through the fluttering of the birds, and also through the falling of the snow. It is keeping our eyes up and down as it should, because otherwise it would be static and relatively forgettable, I think.

It is all very well composed, considering what an odd subject it is. It was a huge hit for this artist and it got him into the next year of fame.


Je le trouve très marquant, il capture l'attention, et les couleurs sont incroyables.
Waterhouse, dans l'ensemble de son oeuvre, réussit à développer une palette de tons très lumineux et colorés, sans jamais tomber dans le tape-à-l'oeil. Quelle virtuosité !

Celui là est absolument magnifique je trouve. Il fait, sans conteste, partie de mes préférés de Waterhouse.
Merci Artemis pour ces retranscriptions. Mais je ne comprends rien à l'anglais malheureusement.
Comment j'aimerais être à la place des Canadiens et voir cette expo, n'empêche.

Tout est toujours loin pour voir les choses intéressantes c'est qu'on se dit à quand les machines à téléportation comme le TARDIS

merci Artémis pour ta merveilleuse participation à ce topic!!!

C'est un vrai plaisir les filles ! Et puis sans ce topic, je n'aurais jamais découvert Waterhouse (je connaissais "de loin"), alors un immense-issime merci à Lady Clare, grâce à qui j'ai appris à adorer cet artiste !

Séverine a écrit:

Mais je ne comprends rien à l'anglais malheureusement.

Je vais me mettre à la traduction alors ! Pas de souci !

Séverine a écrit:

Comment j'aimerais être à la place des Canadiens et voir cette expo, n'empêche.

Moi aussi ! moi aussi !!!

Ah non, non, Artemis, je ne disais pas ça pour ça. Ça va être du boulot pour toi et avec les retranscriptions, tu en as déjà assez. Je vais bien trouver une amie qui pourrait me traduire dans les grandes lignes...

Je sais bien, mais ça ne me pose aucun problème ! J'ai le temps et ça me fait plaisir de pouvoir partager cet enthousiasme pour Waterhouse avec vous !

J'apprends par ce topic qu'il y aura une exposition à Montréal!

J'irai la voir et vous donnerez mes impressions.

Aaaaaaaaah !!!! Maribel, tu habites juste là où il faut être, petite chanceuse. Nous attendons ton récit de pied ferme + qques photos si cela est possible...
Artemis : Ok alors et puis ça servira aussi à d'autres personnes, je pense. En tous cas, merci vraiment.

Je continue les transcriptions des présentations des tableaux. La traduction viendra après (mais je ne l’ai pas oublié )

Voici After the dance, un tableau assez surprenant, mais qui mérite qu’on s’arrête devant



La vidéo transcrite est celle-ci :


After the dance, 1876

After the dance is a very off picture in many ways. First of all, it is interesting that young Waterhouse, who at this time is aged only 27, is presenting a picture of relatively large scale, having been through the academy school, having been entranced with Ancient Rome and its culture, showing us not a heroic moment, something that is recognisably historical and grand but instead a quiet, introspective moment, a moment of melancholy.

The two young children in the foreground have clearly been dancing at a party of some sort. Obviously there have been festivities. The musicians are winding up their evening and there is a lady standing up in the background quite alone, quite contemplative. Everybody seems to be exhausted and a little bit sad that the party is over, but it is a little bit more than that.

Behind these beautiful young children appears a decoration on the wall which depicts a funeral. Now, that is a very odd juxtaposition: to have young people in full bloom, with rosy cheeks, holding flowers, juxtaposed with an image of death, of passing, if time passing. And in a way it is very much about the transients of life, the idea that you might be young today but be old and dead tomorrow.

It seems a little strange, a bit melancholic, a bit broody. And in a way, I think that we can look to part of Waterhouse’s young life. We know that he was deeply affected by the early death of his mother – he was only 5 or 6 when his mother died of tuberculosis – and he also lost 2 brothers later to tuberculosis as well. It could just be that Waterhouse was, as a young man, suffering from grief, from watching family members die, and so the idea of wilted flowers, of children who die too young may have for him.

It is worth pointing out the photograph-like elements of this picture. If you look carefully at the left margin of the painting, you see that certain aspects have been sliced off. Now that is not a mistake in the framing. For example, there is a vase at the bottom left. That is not a bad frame job. That is actually Waterhouse cutting the picture right at a crucial moment to give us a sense of slice of life, of photograph. We often take that [???] even today, which are not so beautifully composed. They are almost in motion, if you will. And Waterhouse therefore is trying to communicate this passing moment. It is the transient moment, and that vase is not the point of the picture. The point is the melancholy that seems to be felt by the children and the lady of the background.

Overall this picture impresses me because it has got a kind of sweet melancholy which is affecting, if you just look at it for a while, if you just let is wash over you. If you are moving quickly, this picture is perhaps forgettable, because it seems it is about nothing, but in fact it is about a sober reflected moment in the life of two young people, which is not often seen, even in the 1870s.

Merci beaucoup Artémis! Beau travail!
Effectivement, ce tableau appartient à la période "classique" de Waterhouse, où il revendique clairement son attachement à l'art italien et à l'Italie en général (rappelons nous qu'il est né à Rome), qu'il cultive en y faisant régulièrement des voyages.

Je reviens de Montréal, voir l'exposition au musée des Beaux-Arts.

Je n'ai pas pu les regarder longuement comme il se devrait, car nous avions les enfants avec nous, mais j'ai beaucoup aimé l'exposition. Ce qui me plaît le plus sont les visages presque réel. J'ai toujours aimé les portraits alors ici j'ai plutôt été choyée.

Comme Lady Clare l'a dit, l'exposition est divisée en période de la vie du peintre en petites salles. Toutes les oeuvres étaient disposées sur des murs noirs.

Je vais vous mettre des photos des oeuvres qui m'ont le plus accrochés.

Dans les premières salles sur ses débuts, Grecian Flower Market. C'est une toile assez petite qui m'a plu surtout par le contraste entre l'arrière-plan lumineux et les personnages dans l'ombre.

Spoiler:

Aussi, bien sûr Lady Shallot dans son bateau. J'ai trouvé que c'était la plus impressionnante, surtout qu'elle est assez grande et mise en valeur car seule sur son mur.

Spoiler:

Destiny, avec les bateaux en arrière-plan.


My sweet rose. Trop magnifique!

Spoiler:

Psyche opening the golden box. Une de mes préférés. Ne pas se méprendre par les couleurs de la photo, les fleurs sont d'un beau lilas en vrai!

Spoiler:

I am half-sick of shadows. Une de mes préférés également.

Spoiler:

Je me rends compte que les photos que l'on trouve sur Internet ou de manière imprimée représente bien faiblement ce que l'on peut voir en vrai. Même si les oeuvres contiennent beaucoup de brun, on y retrouve parfois des rouges intenses, des lilas, et même des aqua.

Je regrette de ne pas avoir pris de note, je ne me rappelle déjà plus des titres et en regardant sur Internet, il y a des oeuvres que je ne suis pas certaines d'avoir vu... Le catalogue serait donc très intéressant à avoir!

J'ai eu un coup de coeur pour la salle avec les croquis, les études et les portraits à la sanguine. Tout particulièrement pour celui-ci, Study for portrait of the Marchioness of Downshire.

Spoiler:

J'aurais aimé connaître un peu plus les références dont le peintre s'inspirait avant de voir l'exposition, mais maintenant que j'ai vu les oeuvres, cela me donne envie d'en savoir un peu plus.

D'autres oeuvres qui faisaient partie de l'exposition: Circe Indiviosa, St Eulalia, Penelope and the suitors, A mermaid, A naiad, ...

Maribel, merci infiniment pour ce compte-rendu et pour les photos. Elles sont magnifiques et nos goûts sont similaires. J'aime beaucoup les tableaux que tu as posté. Je n'imagine pas ce que ça doit être de voir "en vrai" ses chefs d'œuvres... J'ai un coup de cœur particulier pour le croquis que tu as posté.
Voilà de quoi me faire bien commencer la journée. Merci.

héhé de rien.
Je me rends compte que j'aurais aimé les regarder encore plus en détail. Si j'ai la chance, si retournerai peut-être, l'expo est là jusqu'en février.