John William Godward

With Thomas McLean, London, 17 May 1900;

Private collection;

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby’s, 19 June 1984, lot 61;

Where purchased by the present owners.

A letter from Godward to McLean, 17 May 1900, Milo-Turner Collection;

V.G. Swanson, John William Godward, The Eclipse of Classicism, London 1997, p. 202, no. 3, reproduced;

V.G. Swanson, J.W. Godward (1861–1922), The Eclipse of Classicism, London 2018, p. 281, no. 3, reproduced.

‘Godward displayed a stunning degree of draughtsmanship and brilliant paint handling quite different from the methods and practices of his contemporaries. His emphasis on saturated colour, a purity of tone and a remarkable rendering of the material environment resulted in an opulent gestalt achieved without fussiness in effect or coarse taste…’ (Vern Grosvenor Swanson, J.W. Godward 1861-1922 – The Eclipse of Classicism, 2018, p. 199)

John William Godward was a quiet and ultimately tragic man (he committed suicide in 1922) but the bleakness of his solitary life is never hinted at in his pictures which depict a perfect and uncomplicated world of happiness and sunshine. His Classically-inspired world is not one of heroes and monsters, metamorphoses and curses – it is a world of ‘Dolce far Niente’ (the joyous state of pleasure in contented idleness) where pretty young girls wait for lovers on sunlit terraces or pose in bath-houses and vibrant gardens, aware of their beauty and proud to be admired. Godward was the son of an investment clerk and born into a conservative family living in Battersea in London. His family were not supportive of his ambition to become a painter but against their wishes he is believed to have studied 'rendering and graining' alongside fellow classicist William Clarke Wontner, probably learning to paint fake marble for fireplaces and furniture. Details of more formal artistic training have not been found but it is likely that he was a student at one of the many art schools in London, or possibly in Europe. In 1887 Godward had a picture accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy in London for the first time, a painting entitled The Yellow Turban. It was around this time that he began renting one of the Bolton Studios in Kensington in the heart of the London artist community. Godward continued to exhibit at the Royal Academy for almost two decades but by 1905 he felt that his style of painting was no longer receiving critical acclaim and he ceased to exhibit and sold his pictures through an agent and various art dealers. Despite his withdrawal from the public eye Godward enjoyed commercial success during his lifetime and the fact that he did not have to paint to please critics and the hanging committees of art galleries meant that he was able to paint what he wanted; the women in roman garb surrounded by beautiful objects and flowers.

The title Corinna derives from the name of a lyric Greek poetess from Boeotia, thought to be a contemporary of Pindar although when she lived is debated by scholars. However Godward often chose Greek or Roman names to evoke the romance of the classical past without necessarily intending that the paintings be interpreted as depictions of well-known women bearing those names. In 1893 Frederic Leighton painted Corinna at Tanagra (private collection) which is a far more literal depiction of the poetess with a superb lyre. Godward's painting may have been inspired by this painting - at least the title.

Corinna probably depicts Godward's favourite professional model of the late 1890s and early 1900s Ethel Warwick, dressed in a diaphanous peacock-hued gown and lost in reverie. It is similar to a contemporary study of the same model (sold in these rooms, 15 July 2015, lot 27). Ethel Maud Warwick was born in Northamptonshire in 1882 and began her career as a professional artists'-model in the later 1890s to fund her art studies at the London Polytechnic. She soon became invaluable to Godward as a regular model and her features can be perceived in the statuesque Venus Binding her Hair in 1897 (sold in these rooms, 23 May 2013, lot 24), The Mirror of 1899 (private collection) and probably also The Delphic Oracle of the same year and Preparing for the Bath of 1900 (sold in these rooms, 10 December 2014, lot 34). She also posed for Herbert Draper, Ralph Peacock, Philip Wilson Steer and Whistler but Corinna was painted in the year that Miss Warwick gave up posing for artists and made her stage debut - she became a well-known actress and pin-up.