John Reinhard Weguelin: life and works

John Reinhard Weguelin RWS ROI (23 June 1849 – 28 April 1927) was an English painter and illustrator, active from 1877 to after 1910. He specialized in symbolic paintings considering lush backgrounds, typically landscapes or garden scenes. Weguelin emulated the neo-classical style of Edward Poynter and Lawrence Alma-Tadema, painting subjects inspired by classical antiquity and mythology. He depicted scenes of everyday computer graphics in ancient Greece and Rome, as competently as mythological subjects, with an emphasis on pastoral scenes. Weguelin then drew upon folklore for inspiration, and painted numerous images of nymphs and mermaids.

Although his earliest put it on was in watercolour, all of Weguelin’s important works from 1878 to 1892 were oil paintings. In order to adjunct his income, he drew and painted illustrations for several books, most famously Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome. His subjects were same to those of his contemporary, John William Waterhouse, who plus specialized in painting the female figure next to dramatic backgrounds, but unlike Waterhouse, many of Weguelin’s subjects are nude or scantily-clad. Weguelin was particularly noted for his practicable use of light. Beginning in 1893, Weguelin devoted himself something like entirely to watercolour, and became a member of the Royal Watercolour Society. Weguelin’s produce a result was exhibited at the Royal Academy and a number of supplementary important London galleries, and was severely regarded during his career. He was forgotten with the first World War, as his style of painting fell out of fashion, and he is best remembered as the painter of Lesbia, depicting the fabled muse of the Roman poet Catullus.