John William Godward R.B.A.

Thomas McLean (acquired directly from the artist, April 20, 1905)
Nathan Mitchel, London (until February 7, 1950)
Cooling Gallery, London
Cooling Gallery, Toronto
Marshall Fields, Chicago
Acquired from the above in 1955

A dark-haired Roman beauty, clad in pink and maroon, examines a string of beads, to decide which color should go next.  The pampered maiden with her jewel box has few cares, aside from the pleasant choice of adornment to grace her fair and sensuous figure.  Godward’s idyllic view gladdens the eye: the feminine comeliness, gorgeous marble and glistening irises each lend beauty to the scene.

In a marble wall niche in the background, Godward has included a well-known bronze statuette found in Nocera, Umbria, and now in the Museo Nazionale in Naples.  This work and other archeological finds fascinated many artists of the day, and this and other sculptures can be found in other Godward compositions as well as those of contemporary painters of classically themed subjects, including Lawrence Alma-Tadema.  The Roman marble column at right was found in Pompeii.  The column terminal is made up of two Dionysiac herm heads facing in opposite directions; the head featured is of a maenad wearing a wreath of ivy leaves, the one on the other side is that of an old satyr. In a Roman garden such a column would not have been placed against a wall because one would not have been able to see both sides, but Godward chooses the lovely maenad, presumably to reinforce the beauty of his main subject.