John William Waterhouse oil painting

Waterhouse, known to his family and friends as Nino, was born in Italy in 1849 to English parents, moving to London at an early age. His father was an artist and Waterhouse followed in his footsteps. 　
Artistic Influences
Waterhouse's early paintings were influenced by Victorian neo-classicism as practiced by Alma-Tadema, Leighton and Poynter. Later, he came under the spell of the second phase of Pre-Raphaelitism, led by Burne-Jones. By the mid-1880s, he was interested in French plein-air painting à la Jules Bastien-Lepage. By the early 1890s, Waterhouse had fused all of these influences into his own style: "He painted pre-Raphaelite pictures in a more modern manner. He was, in fact, a kind of academic Burne-Jones, like him in his types and his moods, but with less insistence on design and more on atmosphere." Read more
　
"A Venice telegram states that the jury of the International Art Exhibition has proclaimed Mr. Walter Crane and Mr. J. W. Waterhouse, R.A., to be of such fame as to be beyond prizes." Court Circular, The Times, October 1905.
　
Contemporary Opinions
Waterhouse was a well-respected and popular artist during his lifetime, and his oil paintings were bought by wealthy private collectors and by major museums in the United Kingdom and abroad. Read more: