John William Waterhouse was born in Rome, Italy to English painters William and Isabella Waterhouse. He moved to South Kensington, London, near the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1854. In 1871 he entered the Royal Academy of Art school and began to exhibit regularly. In 1883 he married fellow English painter Esther Kenworthy. In 1895 Waterhouse was elected “full Academician”. He taught at the St. John’s Wood Art School, joined the St John’s Wood Arts Club, and was a member of the Royal Academy Council. He died of cancer in 1917 and is buried with his wife in Kensal Green Cemetery.

Waterhouse was famous for his depictions of women from ancient Greek mythology, Arthurian legend, works of authors such as Homer, Shakespeare, Tennyson, or Keats etc.. Many of the women were not simple innocent creatures. They tended to have a dark or tragic side.

For example in the painting “Lamia and the soldier” above, the Lamia name in Greek mytholodogy was a type of phantom who seduced young men to satisfy their sexual desires and fed on their flesh afterwards.

“The Lady of Shalott” appearing in multiple Waterhouse paintings above was taken from a ballad by 19th-century English poet Alfred Tennyson. The poem tells the tragic story of Elaine of Astolat, a young noblewoman stranded in a tower up-river from Camelot.

“Miranda” in the paintings above was a leading character in Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest”. Miranda was the daughter of Prospero. She was exiled to a remote island with her father at the age of three and lived only with him for 12 years. As a result she was an innocent, unaware of the evils of the world and learns about her father’s fate only as the play begins.

In the paintings titled “Circe Invidiosa” Circe is a sorceress who loves a young man. But she has a rival. So she prepares a portion to turn the rival into a foul creature. The paintings depicts Circe pouring the portion over the body of her rival. The painting’s focus in on Circe’s jealous/evil expression as she pours the portion.