John William Waterhouse ~ Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus, 1900

Nymphs finding the head of Orpheus:
a sketch of the nymph at the left

"This evocative oil sketch was painted as Waterhouse prepared his great 'Nymphs Finding the head of Orpheus' (private collection), signed in 1900 and exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts the following year.

The depiction of this mythic moment is unique within Victorian painting, and possibly within all of British art. Through the late 19th Century, Symbolist artists and writers had grown evermore enthusiastic about Orpheus, the greatest poet and musician in Greek myth, because he, like so many creative individuals, sang the truth and thus aroused resentment. Dismissed by his contemporaries as effeminate for mourning his wife too passionately, Orpheus was torn to pieces by Maenads after rejecting their advances. Into the river they hurled his head, which demonstrated art's immortality by continuing to sing as it floated away.

Victorian artists usually showed Orpheus singing while still alive, or rescuing his wife Eurydice from Hades. Most avoided the gruesomeness of Orpheus's demise, which instead attracted such Continental peers as the Frenchman Gustave Moreau. Indeed, Waterhouse may have been inspired by Moreau's pensive 'Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus on his Lyre' (1866), which the Englishman surely saw on visits to the popular Musée Luxembourg in Paris. Waterhouse was also probably familiar with the recent revival of Orphism, the ancient ecstatic cult that had celebrated Orpheus as a martyr before it was absorbed by the early Christian church.

Gustave Moreau
Orpheus, 1865

Waterhouse had long been fascinated with the violent aspects of ancient myth. Yet rather than presenting a physically dynamic struggle (such as 'Ulysses and the Sirens' of 1891), he imagined 'Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus' as a scene of contemplation subtly laced with horror. Orpheus's severed head constitutes the key feature, yet viewers notice the beautiful nymphs first and last, and are drawn inexorably into the picture by their compassionate gazes and gestures. A now-unlocated drawing of the nymphs (published in 1917) reveals that Waterhouse considered-and wisely rejected-more horrified facial expressions and body language. Instead, he created a picture 'more of dream than of conscious thought,' a phrase coined by critic Frank Rinder that pertains equally to other Waterhouse masterworks of this period.

The present sketch deftly conveys the girl's mix of alarm and sympathy: her eyes gaze downward, drawing her head and upper torso forward without seeming ungainly. This work also reveals how Waterhouse built up his surface, focusing most intensively on the flushed face, then on the hair and other flesh passages. (Particularly adept is the shadowing along and below the right cheek, which allows the brighter nose and shoulder cap to guide our eyes downward.) Highly characteristic are the delicate blue colouring of the garment and the lively brushstrokes in the background, especially the dark dabs at right centre that hint at the right-hand nymph."
Courtesy Christie's Lot Notes:
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5327298
Study by Waterhouse is included in the June 16th auction at Christie's, London:
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/searchresults.aspx?intSaleID=22746#action=refine&intSaleID=22746&sid=72efb6e2-7814-4045-b2e8-1ca937902f2a

John William Waterhouse
Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus, 1900

"Traditionally, Orpheus was the son of a Muse (probably Calliope, the patron of epic poetry) and Oeagrus, a king of Thrace (other versions give Apollo). According to some legends, Apollo gave Orpheus his first lyre. Orpheus' singing and playing were so beautiful that animals and even trees and rocks moved about him in dance.

Orpheus joined the expedition of the Argonauts, saving them from the music of the Sirens by playing his own, more powerful music. On his return, he married Eurydice, who was soon killed by a snakebite. Overcome with grief, Orpheus ventured himself to the land of the dead to attempt to bring Eurydice back to life. With his singing and playing he charmed the ferryman Charon and the dog Cerberus, guardians of the River Styx. His music and grief so moved Hades, king of the underworld, that Orpheus was allowed to take Eurydice with him back to the world of life and light. Hades set one condition, however: upon leaving the land of death, both Orpheus and Eurydice were forbidden to look back. The couple climbed up toward the opening into the land of the living, and Orpheus, seeing the Sun again, turned back to share his delight with Eurydice. In that moment, she disappeared.

Orpheus himself was later killed by the women of Thrace. The motive and manner of his death vary in different accounts, but the earliest known, that of Aeschylus, says that they were Maenads urged by Dionysus to tear him to pieces in a Bacchic orgy because he preferred the worship of the rival god Apollo. His head, still singing, with his lyre, floated to Lesbos, where an oracle of Orpheus was established. The head prophesied until the oracle became more famous than that of Apollo at Delphi, at which time Apollo himself bade the Orphic oracle stop. The dismembered limbs of Orpheus were gathered up and buried by the Muses. His lyre they had placed in the heavens as a constellation."

Courtesy ArtMagick
Source: Encyclopædia Britannica

Two additional studies by Waterhouse for
Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus

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For information about the last study:
http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?live_lot_id=128&sale_number=L08132

For information about Gustave Moreau's Orpheus:
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/orpheus-3033.html?tx_commentaire_pi1%5BpidLi%5D=509&tx_commentaire_pi1%5Bfrom%5D=841&cHash=fec9d558a8

John William Waterhouse - The Lady Clare, 1900

She clad herself in a russet gown,
She was no longer Lady Clare:
She went by dale, and she went by down,
With a single rose in her hair.

The lily-white doe Lord Ronald had brought
Leapt up from where she lay,
Dropt her head in the maiden's hand,
And follow'd her all the way. - Tennyson

Two studies for The Lady Clare by Waterhouse

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The Lady Clare @ ArtMagick

Elizabeth Siddal's Lady Clare - LINK

Some poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson - LINK
Lady Clare is at the bottom of the page.

John William Waterhouse - Windflowers ... and links to the 2009 Waterhouse documentary and another video

The photographs shown above were taken at the Groninger Museum
in Groningen, The Netherlands during the Waterhouse exhibition.
Copyright for the photographs belongs to:
1. 'AbAberson'
2. & 3. 'Sandori'

Windflowers, 1903 - at ArtMagick

~~~~~~~~~~~

If you haven't seen them before,
or would like to enjoy them again ...

RTV Noord shares works by Waterhouse in London
before the opening of the Waterhouse exhibition
at the Groninger Museum (December 2008).
Na 'Fatale Vrouwen' hele tentoonstelling Waterhouse
(English & Dutch - about 3 minutes long)
- LINK -

Documentary about John William Waterhouse
from AVRO Close Up
in association with the Groninger Museum (1 April 2009).
De betoverende vrouwen van John William Waterhouse
The enchanting women of John William Waterhouse
(English with Dutch subtitles - 52 min.)
http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=8573842

John Keats - Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil

Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil
(completed in 1818)

A Story from Boccaccio

LIII.
And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun,
And she forgot the blue above the trees,
And she forgot the dells where waters run,
And she forgot the chilly autumn breeze;
She had no knowledge when the day was done,
And the new morn she saw not: but in peace
Hung over her sweet Basil evermore,
And moisten'd it with tears unto the core.


LIV.
And so she ever fed it with thin tears,
Whence thick, and green, and beautiful it grew,
So that it smelt more balmy than its peers
Of Basil-tufts in Florence; for it drew
Nurture besides, and life, from human fears,
From the fast mouldering head there shut from view:
So that the jewel, safely casketed,
Came forth, and in perfumed leafits spread.


LV.
O Melancholy, linger here awhile!
O Music, Music, breathe despondingly!
O Echo, Echo, from some sombre isle,
Unknown, Lethean, sigh to us—O sigh!
Spirits in grief, lift up your heads, and smile;
Lift up your heads, sweet Spirits, heavily,
And make a pale light in your cypress glooms,
Tinting with silver wan your marble tombs.

Lines 417- 440

1. William Holman Hunt
Isabella and the Pot of Basil, 1867
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne

An interesting posting -
http://preraphaelitesisterhood.com/?p=41

2. John William Waterhouse
Isabella and the Pot of Basil, 1907
Private collection

3. Henrietta Rae
Isabella
"Reproduced in colour in 'Henrietta Rae (Mrs. Ernest Normand)' by Arthur Fish, Cassell and Company, 1905." - Courtesy ArtMagick

4. Arthur Trevethin Nowell
Isabella and the Pot of Basil, 1904
Museo de Arte de Ponce
The Luis A. Ferré Foundation, Inc.
Ponce, Puerto Rico
(Thank you to ArtMagick for sharing information about this work.)
http://www.arthurnowell.com/

-----------------

Keats-Shelley House, Rome - Link
http://www.keats-shelley-house.org/en/romanticism

Four Keats Poems and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision of the Middle Ages
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dgr/bottai1.html

Introduction to Keats
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/keats.html

The complete poem - Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil

J. W. Waterhouse - Isabella and the Pot of Basil

John William Waterhouse's painting, Isabella and the Pot of Basil, is shown above the fireplace in Rod Stewart's Beverly Hills mansion master suite. The lovely photograph (photo by Mary E. Nichols) is from a 2007 Architectural Digest piece. Link
(Link to beginning of photographs from the Digest.)

“I would give anything to work at Sotheby’s,” says Stewart, who—fame aside—is a collector like any other collector. He reads auction catalogues in bed. He frets about running out of space. He always has his eye on something, though he has learned to bid with caution and from a distance. “It’s so-o-o addictive,” he says. ... The collection that gives Stewart the most pleasure is his Pre-Raphaelite paintings, which he believes to be one of the largest in the world. The heroes and heroines of his canvases are caught in various late-Victorian states of ecstasy, many of them, the singer explains, “based on the poems of Keats and Tennyson.” About a third of the collection is hung here, most dramatically on the split entrance hall stair, paintings of women on one side and couples on the other. He reminds us, "You have no idea how big those paintings are until you’re standing next to them." - Link to the text of the Architectural Digest article this is taken from.

image courtesy ArtMagick
@ http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/home/

On page 193 of Peter Trippi's 2002 Waterhouse monograph, it is written that Isabella and the Pot of Basil was "unlocated" at that time.

I checked this yesterday after reading a blog posting by Alison Flood about a recent fundraising event for the Keats-Shelley house in Rome.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/mar/18/keats-shelley-house

In the posting, Alison shares something Catherine Payling, curator of the Keats-Shelley House, told her. While "searching for the whereabouts of John William Waterhouse's painting Isabella and the Pot of Basil, based on Keats's poem of the same name, she was pointed towards, of all people, Rod Stewart. An eagle-eyed expert had spotted what appears to be the painting, hanging in Stewart's Beverley Hills mansion, in an "at home" feature the singer did with Architectural Digest [May 2007]."

Alison wrote, "Whether or not it turns out to be the original remains to be seen ..."

Today ArtMagick confirmed that it is: "per Peter Trippi, Waterhouse's biographer, as far as he is aware, the original painting 'Isabella' is indeed in Rod Stewart's collection."

The work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1907. Anthony Hobson shared the following about the painting in his 1980 publication. It first became part of the H. W. Henderson collection. (H. W. was the brother of Alexander Henderson - http://www.buscot-park.com/frameset5.html) (Also see about halfway down this page from Julia Kerr for information about the Hendersons.) The painting was purchased in 1948 by Gooden & Fox for 35gn. at a Christie's auction. A "Mrs Wigan" is then listed in the provenance - I believe this is Aline Henderson, H. W. Henderson's daughter. She married John Tyson Wigan in 1911. The painting appeared at Christie's again in 1967 and became part of the Lord Lambton collection. In 1971 it was shown at Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield UK as part of a Burne-Jones exhibition.

John William Waterhouse - St Cecilia, 1895

"... in 'St Cecilia' Mr Waterhouse has taken another stride forward. There is not, perhaps, the mystery which has invested so many of his pictures with indescribable charm; but there are here greater merits, as compensation, in the composition, fine and well balanced, and a true sense of poetry, in its wider significance of conception, handling, colour, and painter-like quality. The artist's imagination....has been well supported by his generous palette; and his wealth of colour, of mauve and white, of green and blue and red, are resolved into a harmony exquisitely adapted to the subject." - The Magazine of Art via Christie's catalogue notes and Peter Trippi

My first opportunity to see Waterhouse's St Cecilia came in June 2000 when it was shown at Christie's in London. In December when I visited the exhibit in Montréal I was able to view it once more. This time, for more extended periods which was such a joy. I was able to stand closely and admire the artist's work. At other times, I was the only person in the room as I sat and gazed upon its beauty. I was able to visit the exhibit over a three day period. As I entered the exhibit for the first time and found works I had never seen in person before, tears of joy welled up. The colours were so much more vivid in person - the works so impressive. On my first day's visit when I arrived in the last room, I found St Cecilia there ... along with other wonderful works ... again the tears of joy came as the beauty of John William Waterhouse was all around me. Today is the last day of the exhibit ... so mixed feelings of regret and thankfulness surround me. I'm so glad I was able to make the trek to Montréal.

'In a clear walled city on the sea,
Near gilded organ pipes...
...slept St Cecily'

oil on canvas
48½ x 79 in. (123.2 x 200.7 cm.)

From Didier Rykner of The Art Tribune - an article about the exhibit.

From Matthew Innis - A visit with Waterhouse ...

From Margaret Smith - Enchantment blooms at Waterhouse exhibit ...

From Neil Miley who visited the exhibit at its first location - a review.

John William Waterhouse, Garden of Enchantment

Television spot from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts:



http://www.mbam.qc.ca/waterhouse/en/video-tv-spot.html -
Eight other videos filmed while the exhibit was at the Royal Academy of Arts in London featuring Peter Trippi discussing some of the works shown at the exhibition are found at the link above.

From the television spot:



http://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/

'Enchantment blooms at Waterhouse exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts'

By Margaret Smith
GateHouse News Service
Jan 27, 2010

Montreal —
"Imagine walking along a remote ocean or sea shore, as turquoise waves call you to some exotic, distant place.

More beckoning still is the sight of a mermaid combing out her long hair, her eyes looking afar, a gaze at once mysterious and inviting.

A viewer can easily imagine encountering such a scene for real in the painting, “A Mermaid,” by John William Waterhouse, the British artist who embraced scenes of a mythical past even as his contemporaries emphasized edgier images of the everyday world.

An exhibit of his paintings is on view in “John William Waterhouse, Garden of Enchantment,” at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, in the only scheduled North American stop of a tour of the paintings.

The exhibit – with paintings and artifacts on loan from The Tate Gallery in London, Leeds Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Ontario -- is the largest-ever retrospective of Waterhouse’s work, and the first international Waterhouse exhibit since 1978.

Among the exhibit’s features are all three of Waterhouse’s paintings depicting “The Lady of Shalott,” the young noblewoman whose love of Sir Lancelot ended in tragedy.

Visitors can learn more about Waterhouse’s life, times, and evolution of his style over his 50-year career, and gain greater understanding of his working methods.

At the same time, it’s a chance to be ensnared somewhere in a dream – perhaps in Cleopatra’s sun-caressed parlor, or in the florid garden of St. Cecilia, as angels greet the patron saint of music with a serenade of violins.

The paintings are arranged in a spacious and elegant walkthrough illuminated with soft lighting, and draped with dark curtains. Throughout are settings of flowers and ornate chairs, quietly echoing the assuring yet haunting worlds Waterhouse brought to life on canvas.

The exhibit puts Waterhouse into the context of the art world of his day, including the emerging schools such as Impressionism in which Waterhouse found formidable competitors.

“Waterhouse knew a great deal about what was going on in the (more technically progressive) art worlds of Paris and Brussels -- partly through British friends who had returned from studying and working there, partly through artworks sent from those cities for exhibition in London, and partly through illustrated magazines and other publications available in London,” said Waterhouse biographer Peter Trippi, exhibit curator, editor of “Fine Art Connoisseur,” and author of an article in the exhibit’s catalogue.

Trippi said, Waterhouse and his contemporaries were excited by new techniques and ideas espoused by the Impressionists.

Some observers also see hints of Impressionist influence in Waterhouse works such as one his three versions of “The Lady of Shalott,” in which water lilies dot the lake where the doomed young noblewoman has taken her boat.

Ultimately, however, Waterhouse retained his own identity, and this, many argue, is what has allowed his work to endure.


The magic touch

If viewers find themselves bewitched, it’s more than coincidental. Inspired by many sources – classical mythology, Biblical and early Christian stories, the poetry of Keats and Tennyson, Shakespearean plays, and British folklore – Waterhouse created numerous images of women, especially those with magical powers.

In “Medea and Jason,” the young witch Medea appears to create a potion while Jason watches. We know from the play by Euripedes that Jason betrays Medea, and that she wreaks a terrible revenge. But for the moment, he seems content to watch and perhaps even learn.

A starker image of magic is seen in “The Magic Circle,” where a witch casts a circle around herself and a cauldron emitting clouds of ether, as magical portents – including crows and a toad – watch from outside the circle’s perimeter.

“The Symbolist painters (of which Waterhouse was one) were deeply interested in the occult, and so it’s not surprising that Waterhouse was, too,” Trippi said.

Spiritualism and other forms of mysticism were popular among the upper classes, in part because of changing attitudes toward religion – including Darwin’s challenge to the literal view of the Bible’s creation stories.

While it’s unknown whether Waterhouse was a member of any of the occult and mystical societies that were prevalent, Trippi said, “Certainly in his works--right from 1884 through his death in 1917--we see continuous expressions of interest in the occult, magic, the supernatural, transformations from one shape to another (e.g., human to plant, animal to human).”

Feminine focus

As enchantresses, queens, victims of injustice, saints, martyrs, mythical creatures, or femmes fatales, Waterhouse painted women predominantly as his main subjects.

In his mature works, they are unfailingly vivid in their expressions of love, fear, longing, sorrow, or contemplation of the world and their role within it.

Sensuality and even seduction can prevail, in ways that are wholesome and innocent, but also signaling possible danger.

A docent guiding a tour group pointed out an exquisite portrait of Circe, another great sorceress of classical Greek tradition, and a prominent character in Homer’s “Odyssey.” She wields her powers without apology, and thinks nothing of turning Odysseus’ sailors into swine that cower at her feet.

She’s also known for her ability to lure men with her voluptuous beauty. The docent remarked that this is seen in the diaphanous and revealing gown she wears. But, one tour member suggests that another clue to Circe’s passions is in her eyes.

“Waterhouse's women have knowledge--the ability to both help and hinder men, who always appear as secondary figures in the compositions,” Trippi said.

One possible interpretation – far from being passive objects to be dandled by fate, the figures in the paintings are women of action. They are always possessed of their own ideas and feelings, and fully expressing them.

“Although we cannot be sure that Waterhouse was a feminist or supported the drive to secure women's right to vote, we can be sure that he admired women not just for their beauty and fertility, but also for their unique sets of knowledge and their closeness to nature," Trippi said.

He added, “Remember that most spiritualistic mediums (see above) were women, not men.”

Trippi observed that viewers in Waterhouse’s times were generally familiar with the stories he depicted, and likely looked at the paintings with their own understandings of the stories and characters.

Waterhouse has long had a popular following, and one doesn’t have to be an art authority to enjoy his work. But in recent years, there is a growing understanding and respect for Waterhouse’s technique among artists and art historians.

Trippi said, “We are seeing a groundswell of admiration of Waterhouse's technical excellence (brushstrokes, coloring, glazing) thanks to this traveling exhibition. Photos of his art are lovely and colorful, but nothing prepares you for the rich, almost voluptuous, experience of seeing these masterworks properly lit and framed.”

And little compares to the fantastical yet unexpectedly personal and familiar realms into which Waterhouse invites his viewers, places that are spellbinding, unsettling, and compelling as any siren’s song." - Margaret Smith, GateHouse News Service


1. A Mermaid, 1900
2. The Lady of Shalott, 1888
3. The Lady of Shalott, 1894
4. Cleopatra, 1888
5. St Cecilia, 1895
6. Jason and Medea, 1907
7. Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses, 1891
8. Circe Invidiosa: Circe Poisoning the Sea, 1892
9. Lamia, 1909
10. Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus, 1900



The exhibit, John William Waterhouse, Garden of Enchantment, will be at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts through 7 February, 2010.
http://www.mbam.qc.ca/waterhouse/en/

John William Waterhouse - The Shrine

The Shrine (detail)

Wishing you much joy and happiness in the New Year!

Montréal - Christmas trees and the wonderful Waterhouse exhibit

Beautiful Christmas trees can be found in the lobby and halls of the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion - Montréal Museum of Fine Arts through 3 January 2010. (The 35 trees were decorated by local groups that reflect Quebec's cultural diversity.)

Below are photographs of signs for the John William Waterhouse exhibition - Garden of Enchantment - I found amongst the Christmas trees.

But, you need to cross the street and enter the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion for a visit to the wonderful exhibit (showing through 7 February 2010).


If you look closely in through the windows at the far right of the photograph above, you can almost :) see part of a display of exhibition catalogues in the lobby at the entrance to the gift shop.

After going up to the third floor, these beautiful banners greet you at the entrance to the exhibit (the door to the left furthest away).

We aren't allowed to take photographs in the exhibiton galleries ... but, I found the two below that some brave souls had taken of Waterhouse's 1894 and 1888 versions of The Lady of Shalott.


This is the first time all of Waterhouse's paintings of The Lady of Shalott have been exhibited together. The first one shown above is the 1894 version and, of course, the other is his 1888 version. Also in this room of the exhibition, hung to the left of the 1894 painting, is Waterhouse's third version, "I am Half Sick of Shadows," said the Lady of Shalott (1915). To the right is a study for the 1894 version.
In the second photograph, you can see Tennyson's poem, The Lady of Shalott, has been displayed on the wall. Then at the lower left of the photo is a darker area which I believe is the large, round, black cushioned seat in the middle of the room.

"Waterhouse owned a copy of the collected works of Tennyson, the pages of which are covered in sketches for future illustrations. [his lovely book is on display as you enter The Lady of Shalott room] He painted three episodes from this poem: the Lady setting out for Camelot in her boat in 1888; the Lady as she turns to look at Lancelot through her window, 1894; and “I Am Half-Sick of Shadows” in which the Lady sits wistfully before her weaving loom in 1915." - Cheryl Van-Buskirk & Emily Rice

Seeing all of the paintings together was such a wonderful experience. I hope to share more about my trip to Montréal and the Musée des Beaux Arts in another posting.
If you haven't already read it, Matthew Innis has written a very interesting and informative piece about the exhibition: A Visit with Waterhouse: My trip to Montreal.

Photographs courtesy:
1. wallyg - taken August, 2009
2. proacguy1
3. & 4. Photos taken by Cathy
5. A.M. Kuchling - taken October, 2009 (the sign wasn't there when I visited in December)
6. cbransto
7. Photo taken by Cathy
8. Brave soul 1
9. Brave soul 2

John William Waterhouse - Camellias

A favourite work by Waterhouse .... a beauty for all seasons. :)
All the best to you and yours!

J. W. Waterhouse Exhibition - Garden of Enchantment

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
John William Waterhouse
Garden of Enchantment

The exhibition will be at The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
through 7 February 2010.

This past summer it was at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. (look mid-way along right side of page for links)

The exhibition was first shown at the Groninger Museum, the Netherlands.

Lots of interesting information to explore
about Waterhouse and the exhibition!

****************

TV advertisement from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Review from The Art Tribune

I'll be away for a few days ... hoping you have a wonderful week!

John William Waterhouse

The Enchanted Garden

A Tale from the Decameron

johnwilliamwaterhouse.com

Lady Lever Art Gallery - The Enchanted Garden & A Tale from the Decameron

Transcript of Podcasts about A Tale from the Decameron and The Enchanted Garden from National Museums Liverpool.

Charles Whymper

A covey of partridge in the bracken at sunset

"Charles Whymper was a member of the Royal Institute and exhibited at the Royal Academy and the New Watercolour Society. He illustrated books on travel, sport and natural history. Whymper knew the artist Joseph Wolf very well and worked under him in his studio for a number of years. His influence can be clearly seen in this painting." - from Christie's Lot Notes

----------------------------

Whymper was an early resident of Primrose Hill Studios in London. From the Camden website information: "First tenants included the painters John Dawson Watson (No. 1), Joseph Wolf (No. 2), John William Waterhouse RA (N0. 3) [later No. 6], John Charles Dollman (No. 5), P.M. Feeney (No. 7), Charles Whymper (No.8) and Lawrence George Calkin (No. 10). Arthur Rackham lived at No. 3 in 1905-6 ..."

John William Waterhouse, Joseph Wolf and Charles Whymper can be seen in a photograph from Julia Kerr's website devoted to Waterhouse. The photo is third down on this page. Waterhouse is shown with other friends and artists at Primrose Hill Studios in the second photo.