John William Godward

With Eugene Cremetti, London, 8 September 1910;

With William Lawson Peacock, Edinburgh and London, by 30 January 1911;

With Henry J. Mullen Ltd, Harrogate, by February 1911;

Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Sotheby's, 4 July 1928, lot 95, for £100;

Where purchased by Mr Grey;

With The Leger Galleries, London, by September 1973;

With Richard Green, London;

From whom purchased in 2005, for £350,000.

Eugene Cremetti letter to Godward, 8 September 1910, Milo Turner Collection;

V.G. Swanson, John William Godward, The Eclipse of Classicism, London 1997, p. 226, reproduced p. 147, fig. 71;

V.G. Swanson, J.W. Godward 1861–1922, The Eclipse of Classicism, Melton 2018, pp. 113, 116, 235, 296, 300–2, no. 10, reproduced in colour p. 225, fig. 211.

It might be said that the title Lassitude could be applied to the majority of John William Godward’s most evocative paintings – so over-arching was his desire to capture the idea of ‘Dolce far Niente’ (the sweet pleasure of inactivity). His paintings evoke a bygone age of Classicism but are not concerned with mythology or grand historical acts. Painted by a quiet, unassuming man who did not seek fame or controversy, these pictures delight the eye and the heart and ask nothing of the viewer but to enter a world where flowers bloom, women repose and sunlight glimmers on the surface of the sea.

John William Godward was the son of an investment clerk and born into a conservative and respectable family living in Battersea in London. His family were not supportive of his desire to become a painter but against their wishes he is believed to have studied 'rendering and graining', 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, 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 the first decade of the twentieth century 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.  

From 1911 Godward spent increasing amounts of time living and working in Rome. Italy became his semi-permanent home for a decade before his premature death in 1921. Although Godward was still living in London in 1910 when Lassitude was painted, it is clear that he had visited Rome in that year. The blossoming tree behind the model is a pink Judas tree (Cercis) which grows in proliferation in the warm climate of the Italian capital. The carved herm probably represents the double-headed Roman God Janus, who simultaneously looks backwards into history and forwards to the future – it is similar to an example in the Vatican Museum. This element suggests the continuation of a classical, timeless concept of beauty and harmony which Godward spent an entire lifetime and career seeking to capture.