John William Godward R.B.A.

Letter from E. Cremetti to J.W. Godward, May 2, 1912 (in the Milo-Turner Collection)
Vern Grosvenor Swanson, John William Godward: The Eclipse of Classicism, Suffolk, 1997, pp. 92, 93, 230, pl. 42, illustrated p. 93

Art historians have long been frustrated in the search for records left detailing Godward's stay in Rome from 1911-12.  Few pieces of correspondence, invoices or art journals provide an immediate suggestion for why the artist left London—a city that had brought him such success and comfort.  As such, one must turn to the impressive quality of works such as The Last Bunch, for visual evidence as to why Godward would make the long trip abroad.  Certainly, the “Eternal City”, with its monuments and sense of history provided the artist with a vast repertoire of rich sources for his paintings; paintings which always evoked an earlier era.  Here, a dark-haired Roman beauty appears lost in a daydream, anxious to sell her last bouquet of flowers.  This was surely a familiar, almost mundane, sight which would have greeted Godward daily on the streets of London, a flower seller with her colorful wares by her side.  However, with the addition of an amber necklace, a marble bench and a warm Mediterranean setting, Godward casts his young model as a heroine of the Roman Empire.

While Godward did not produce an exceptionally large number of works in this period, those paintings he did complete were certainly equal in quality to those done in his Chelsea studio.  However, inscribed Rome on the verso, The Last Bunch could appeal to the more intangible allure of a "Roman" picture that actually came from the culture it depicted. As such, the bright palette and well-modeled figure speak of the inspiration the country provided.  While the seller may be lost in a dream, her eyes unfocused, her specific beauty calls out to the viewer and demands attention.  She is a native of the country even if her creator was British by birth— and both are classically Roman in artistic spirit.