Herbert James Draper (1863-1920) was an English artist famous for his paintings of nude bathing beauties and for his rather free interpretation of various myths, legends and literary works reflected in his artwork. Draper's paintings are somewhat reminiscent of the "adult" fantasy in which Boris Vallejo creates, but with a correction for the peculiarities of style and morality of the Victorian period.
Gate of Dawn
At that time it was considered indecent to depict nudes related to real life, i.e. nudes should be painted of goddesses, naiads, heroes and especially heroines of myths and legends, and in no other way. Draper always followed this rule, and since he had a very good school - Draper studied at the Royal Academy - it is not surprising that his artwork was in great demand.
A flying fish
Yes, and talent he was not lacking, and studied seriously and diligently, strictly following all the recommendations of the teachers of the Academy. At first, this approach was quite successful - in the Academy Draper was on a good account, he was even awarded a gold medal in 1889 for the painting "Lament for Icarus", which gave the opportunity to make at the expense of the state travel to Rome and Paris, which were by then the capitals of world painting.
Cry for Icarus
Except for the French Impressionist paintings, which Draper must have seen in Paris. They made no great impression on him, and he did not want to write in the same style. But from the classical Italian Renaissance painting Dripper took a lot, although his paintings are still closer in subject matter and level of detail to the artwork of the Pre-Raphaelites, in particular John Waterhouse. By the way, Draper was friends with Waterhouse and attended his funeral in 1917.
Ray of sunshine
After studying settled in London, opened his own art studio and at first worked as an illustrator, good for all sorts of drawings for books, newspapers and magazines was a very good demand. But the "craft" artwork did not attract him too much, after all, it is not for this he spent so many years learning to write academically correct paintings.
The Sea Maiden
Finally, in 1894, he wrote the painting "Sea Maiden" which became very popular, about Draper talked as a great artist who does not invent anything new, but his work knows well. The water element and its associated cute inhabitants - all kinds of nymphs and naiads, were favorite themes of Draper's artwork.
Odysseus and the Sirens
However, there was a well thought-out reason for this - just Victorian morality was very strict, and the demand for paintings in the genre of nudes is always consistently high. Therefore, we had to go to certain tricks, after all, nymphs and naiads in the style of academicism firmly associated at that time with the "real" art and no one did not cause discontent.
By the summer sea
Dripper painted them according to all the canons - hence the perfect bodies, mannered refined poses, and extreme decorativeness. Of course, such paintings were detached from real life, but looked great in the expensive living rooms of London aristocrats. However, Draper wrote and "salon" portraits of his rich customers. In general, spinning as he could.
Lamia
But soon the demands on art changed, Draper's academicism, though thoroughly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, seemed absolutely archaic. Over the paintings of Draper began to laugh, he was considered an artist of the past era, the embodiment of all the "vulgar" and far-fetched that was in the salon art. To write in a new way Dripper did not want, and did not know how, so had to put up with ridicule and oblivion. However, in his best years, he earned enough not to need anything, and the demand for his illustrations was consistently high - after all, he was a great draughtsman.
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