Nerissa by John William Godward

The celebration of statuary beauty and the attraction to the intimate settings of Imperial Rome animate this composition of great linear refinement. In the ceremonial portrait entitled “Nerissa”, the academic painter John William Godward conceives a remarkable chromatic harmony that highlights the grace of his female model. The canvas bears witness to the artist’s desire to reconcile the rigor of neoclassical drawing with the taste for precious botanical and decorative details within a refined poetic universe.

A young woman with curly black hair girt with a thin golden headband faces the viewer, her body slightly flexed in a stable pose. She is dressed in a fine pleated salmon-orange stola, fitted under the bust by a bright red ribbon whose ends fall with delicacy. A large sage-green drapery envelops her hips and wraps around her thighs in the foreground. She leans against a white fluted column, while to her right rises a large black ceramic amphora in ancient Greek style. In the right foreground, superb pink poppies flourish proudly before a Pompeian red wall background.

The craftsman’s talent shines through in the virtuoso treatment of the light draperies and the vibration of the colored pigments. His absolute mastery of oil painting allows him to account for the roughness of the wild flora and the shine of the ceramic with perfect realism. This meticulous execution underlines his exceptional artisanal expertise.