Research On The Painting Style Of John William Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse is a pre-Raphael artist from the middle of the 19 th century to beginning of the 20 th century.This genre firstly reflects the spiritual perplexity brought by modern industrial civilization in painting works in the art history,which has a deep influence on symbolism and aestheticism at the end of the 19 th century and is an indispensable and important part of the art history.However,the research on this genre is mainly focused on artists in the early and middle period.John William Waterhouse,as a representative in the later period of this genre,created some academic values and his academic values has been underestimated for a long time.This topic is divided into four chapters and two parts.The first part analyzes the reasons for the formation of Waterhouse's style from three aspects including personal life,era background and artistic environment.The second part analyzes the style of Waterhouse's paintings from three aspects including form factor,theme and content,material selection and style characteristics.Waterhouse style embraces and absorbs the advantages of other painting genres,and presents unique personal charm with his strong foundation and fantastic ideas.Through the analysis of Waterhouse's painting style,the artistic value of Waterhouse's paintings and its enlightenment to contemporary painting creation are re-evaluated.