Chronology

  • 1849

    John William Waterhouse (nicknamed “Nino”) is born in Rome to British parents, both painters. Family returns to London five years later.

  • 1857

    Mother dies of tuberculosis. Father remarries in London and starts another family.
    Attends a school in Leeds, Yorkshire.

  • 1870

    Admitted to Royal Academy Schools (London) first as a probationer, then as a full student in sculpture. Exhibits paintings at Society of British Artists (London).

  • 1874

    Exhibits a painting at Royal Academy of Arts. Does so every summer until his death, except 1890 and 1915.

  • 1877

    Visits the ruins of Pompeii in Italy.

  • 1883

    Marries the flower painter Esther Maria Kenworthy (1857–1944). Starts renting a flat in Primrose Hill while working at the studio nearby. The Favourites of the Emperor Honorius becomes Waterhouse’s first painting to enter a museum collection (Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide).

  • 1885

    Elected an Associate of Royal Academy of Arts after St. Eulalia is acclaimed and purchased by the sugar manufacturer Henry Tate.

  • 1886

    The Magic Circle is acquired for the national collection (now at Tate) through the Chantrey Bequest, a fund dedicated to the purchase of British art.

  • 1887

    Begins teaching part-time at Academy Schools and does so intermittently until 1908.

  • 1888

    Exhibits his first treatment of The Lady of Shalott (now at Tate), still Waterhouse’s most famous work and the one most closely connected to plein-air practices.

  • 1889

    Mariamne wins a medal at Paris’ world’s fair, then others in Chicago in 1893 and Brussels in 1897.

  • 1890

    Father dies. Does not exhibit at the Academy, probably due to extended travel in Italy.

  • 1891

    Ulysses and the Sirens and Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses open a new phase of interest in classical myths.

  • 1895

    Elected a full Academician after St. Cecilia is acclaimed.

  • 1900

    Waterhouse moves to larger studio-house in St. John’s Wood, northwest London.

  • 1909

    Rose E. D. Sketchley publishes, in the Christmas issue of the Art Journal, the longest essay about Waterhouse prepared during his lifetime.

  • 1917

    Dies of liver cancer at home, aged sixty-eight.