John William Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse (1849–1917) was an English painter, born in Rome to English painter parents, and baptised there in April 1849. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1871, first studying sculpture and then painting. His early work followed the academic tradition of classical subjects, and he later took up the themes and manner of the Pre-Raphaelites. Waterhouse exhibited at the Royal Academy almost every year from 1874 until 1916 and became a full Royal Academician in 1895. He is best known for pictures of women from Greek myth, Arthurian legend and Shakespeare: The Magic Circle (1886), Ophelia (1888), three versions of The Lady of Shalott (1888, 1894 and 1916), Saint Cecilia (1895) and A Mermaid (1900). He also painted Hylas and the Nymphs. He married the painter Esther Kenworthy in 1883, and taught at St John's Wood Art School. About 118 paintings are recorded. Waterhouse died of cancer in London in February 1917, and the Royal Academy held a major retrospective of his work in 2009.