John Reinhard Weguelin (23 June 1849 – 28 April 1927) was an English painter and illustrator, active from 1877 to after 1910. He specialized in figurative paintings with 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 life in ancient Greece and Rome, as well as mythological subjects, with an emphasis on pastoral scenes. Weguelin also drew on folklore for inspiration, and painted numerous images of nymphs and mermaids.
Although his earliest work was in watercolour, all of Weguelin's important works from 1878 to 1892 were oil paintings. In order to supplement his income, he drew and painted illustrations for several books, most famously Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. His subjects were similar to those of his contemporary, John William Waterhouse, who also specialized in painting the female figure against dramatic backgrounds, but unlike Waterhouse, many of Weguelin's subjects are nude or scantily-clad. Weguelin was particularly noted for his realistic use of light. Beginning in 1893, Weguelin devoted himself almost entirely to watercolour, and became a member of the Royal Watercolour Society. Weguelin's work was exhibited at the Royal Academy and a number of other important London galleries, and was highly regarded during his career. He was forgotten following 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.
Life
John Reinhard Weguelin was born 23 June 1849, in the village of South Stoke, near Arundel. His father, William Andrew Weguelin, was Rector of South Stoke,Who's Who (1897), Douglas Sladen, ed. but was forced to relinquish his position about 1856, when he joined the Tractarian Movement, and became a Roman Catholic.Marcus Bourne Huish, British Water-Colour Art, Adam & Charles Black, London (1904). When he was still a child, Weguelin's family departed Sussex for Italy, where they lived for several years. Weguelin spent much time at Rome, where he was inspired by art and history. Other than a few drawing lessons in Italy, Weguelin had no formal training in art during his childhood. In 1860, the eleven-year-old Weguelin was sent to Cardinal Newman's Oratory School in Edgbaston. From 1870 to 1873, he worked as an underwriter for Lloyd's of London.
At the age of twenty-three in 1873, Weguelin enrolled in the Slade School of Fine Art, then headed by Edward Poynter. He studied there for five years, under both Poynter and his successor, Alphonse Legros. Weguelin's first exhibited work was a watercolour, The Death of the First-born, at the Dudley Gallery in 1877. On his graduation from "the Slade," he had his first painting exhibited at the Royal Academy. Although later celebrated as a watercolourist, Weguelin would not exhibit in this medium again until the 1890s, and nearly all of his paintings until 1893 were in oil.
Weguelin was heavily influenced by the work of Lawrence Alma-Tadema, but within a few years he developed his own interpretation of classical subjects. Beginning in 1878, he exhibited numerous paintings at various London galleries, including the Royal Academy, the Grosvenor Gallery, and the New Gallery. His work was also featured by the Society of British Artists. His subjects included landscapes, classical and Biblical themes, and pastoral scenes. He also produced illustrations for several books, including the 1881 edition of Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome, G. A. Henty's The Cat of Bubastes (1889), a volume of poems by Catullus (1893), Hans Christian Andersen's stories in The Little Mermaid and other Tales (1893), and Thomas Stanley's translation of Anacreon (1894).Anacreon, Thomas Stanley, translator, A.H. Bullen, London (1892, 1906).
The Library described Weguelin as one of the few decorative artists who seldom relied on pen, and habitually expressed themselves in "wash" rather than by line: "Mr. Weguelin has illustrated Anacreon in a manner to earn the appreciation of Greek scholars, and his illustrations to Hans Andersen have had a wider and not less appreciative reception. His drawings have movement and atmosphere."R.E.D. Sketchley, "English Book-Illustration of To-Day", in The Library, New Series, vol. III (1902).
In 1893, Weguelin took up watercolour for the first time since leaving the Slade. He exhibited The Swing at the Royal Academy, and after a few months he was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours. He became a full member in 1897. From this time, Weguelin painted almost exclusively in watercolour, and produced little in oil. He exhibited regularly at a gallery in Pall Mall East.
Weguelin enjoyed canoeing and swimming, and was a member of the Savile Club. In mature life, he settled at Hastings. He died 28 April 1927.
Artistic style
Weguelin's early works could be considered classicist, reconstructing images of daily life from Greek and Roman times.Alfred Lys Baldry, "J. R. Weguelin and his Work." The International Studio, vol. 24 (1904–05), p. 378 ff. However, his work reflected a free adaptation of the pagan spirit of classical art, instead of adhering to a strictly historical interpretation. Writing in 1904, art critic Alfred Lys Baldry described Weguelin as "a painter of classic abstractions.""Lesbia als Pin-up Girl", in Catull in Bild und Ton, Tobias Calinski, ed., WBG, Darmstadt (2021), pp. 183–204.
In an 1888 article on exhibitions at the New Gallery, The Art Journal compared the work of three contemporaries, Alma-Tadema, whose work had strongly influenced Weguelin, Charles Napier Kennedy, and Weguelin himself, to that of George Frederic Watts. All four artists treated similar subjects. Mr. Alma-Tadema's Venus and Mars, Mr. C.N. Kennedy's Fair-haired Slave who made himself a King, and Mr. J.R. Weguelin's Bacchus and the Choir of Nymphs are figure subjects of more realistic intention than the preceding [referring to Mr. Watts' ''Angel of Death'']. Mr. Tadema's colour is the most mellow, and Mr. Weguelin's the hardest and coldest. All three are seriously studied, and give a more or less true notion of the figure in its natural relation to the environment.The Art Journal, New Series (1888), p. 221.
Weguelin's later work was described by Baldry in The Practice of Water-Colour Painting:It is especially as a painter of the nude figure in water-colour that Mr. J.R. Weguelin has made himself famous. He has taken up a class of subject that comparatively few artists attempt, and he has handled it in a long series of very attractive paintings with a charm and distinction that can be sincerely admired. He has a very pleasing fancy and a delightful sense of style; and his graceful draughtsmanship, his exquisite feeling for delicate harmonies of colour, and his brilliantly direct and expressive brushwork make his productions more than ordinarily important as examples of the judicious application of the water-colour medium. Baldry goes on to discuss Weguelin's principles and techniques.Alfred Lys Baldry, The Practice of Water-Colour Painting: Illustrated by the Work of Modern Artists, Macmillan and Co., Limited, London (1911).
The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica mentions Weguelin as, "one of the most facile and expressive painters of fantastic figure subjects.""Painting," in the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition (1911).
British Water-Colour Art lists the colours used by members and associates of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours. Weguelin's palette included "vermilion, light red, rose madder, purple madder, brown madder, yellow ochre, cadmium 1 and 2, oxide of chromium, oxide of chromium (transparent), black and Chinese white, Vandyke brown, raw umber, burnt umber."
The Practice of Water-Colour Painting describes his palette as "cendre blue, French blue, oxide of chromium (opaque and transparent), Hooker's green, No. 1, yellow ochre, aureolin, cadmium orange, raw sienna, burnt sienna, purple madder, rose madder, light red, brown madder, Vandyke brown, raw umber, and flake white; and occasionally vermilion, burnt umber, and lampblack."
Selected works The Death of the First-born (1877, watercolour) was Weguelin's debut at the Dudley Gallery, and his last important watercolour until 1893. The subject was one that Alma-Tadema had treated in both 1859 and 1872. Its title refers to the last of the ten Plagues of Egypt appearing in the Book of Exodus, in which the first-born children of all Egypt were struck down, convincing the Egyptians to release the Hebrews from bondage.
The Death of the Firstborn, by Mr. Weguelin, shows a young man stretched out stark for the funeral-rites, and his mother (perhaps, rather, his wife) crouched on the ground with her face hidden between her knees; a sufficiently well-conceived treatment, fairly executed, but not to be called intense.W. M. Rossetti, "The Dudley Gallery", in The Academy: a Weekly Review of Literature, Science, and Art, vol. 11, p. 124 (February 10, 1877).
The daughters of the Greek king Danaüs pour jugs of water into a bottomless jar that they are condemned to fill, in The Labor of the Danaïdes (1878). This painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy.Algernon Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904 vol. VIII (1906).
Weguelin's most famous painting is probably Lesbia (1878), inspired by the woman who inspired many of the Roman poet Catullus' works. Catullus used the pseudonym "Lesbia" to refer to an aristocratic lover whom he did not wish to scandalize, although their relationship was tumultuous, and Catullus writes bitterly of its ending. She is widely supposed to have been Clodia, around whom swirled rumors and scandals involving some of the most prominent men at Rome, although no contemporary source makes that identification, and this element of mystery adds to the appeal of both the poems and Weguelin's painting.
In the painting, Lesbia is depicted as a young woman, standing contrapposto and framed in the gateway of a garden. She is clad only in a diaphanous gown through which sunlight is visible, and in her hair is a garland. Lesbia is feeding the birds, which fly and perch about her and gather at her feet. The birds depicted are house sparrows. Behind Lesbia are flowers, trees, and a view of the sea.
The Tired Dancer, also known as Revelry (1879), was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery.Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, John Denison Champlin, Jr. and Charles C. Perkins, eds., vol. IV (1913). It was reviewed in The Dublin University Magazine: J.R. Weguelin's "Tired Dancer" is very clear and rich. The girl has flung herself upon a marble seat beneath a marble pillar; her loose dress of dark red gause forms a brilliant patch against the marble, and yet it does not hide the limbs beneath. Her dark hair is crowned with clustering yellow flowers, the face is utterly asleep, and the right arm flung out straight upon the marble slab behind her well conveys the idea of complete weariness. The execution of the marble is a kind of reminiscence of Alma Tadema's work."A Gossip on the Grosvenor Gallery," in The Dublin University Magazine, vol. 94, p. 66 ff. (July, 1879)
A Portrait (1880) was exhibited at the Royal Academy.