John Waterhouse

Went to the Royal Academy today to see the J.W. Waterhouse exhibition. It was really fantastic-to see so many iconic works in their full, real-life glory was amazing. I'm no art expert but his pre-Raphaelite style satisfies my love of pretty things on a very simple level. I also love how he based so many of his paintings on poems and literature and ancient myths-I'm kinda into all of that stuff, so at once the paintings become more than just pictures; they have a background and a story. So many of his larger-scale works made me want to step into them and wander round the corner to explore the half-real, half-fantasy world he created using canvas and paint.

But, of course, being a fashion lover, I spent a lot of the time gazing at the women in the paintings (well, it was hard not too-I think there was one painting in the whole place which didn't have at least one woman in) and admiring their beautiful pale skin and perfect bone structure-one sketch, which I couldn't find on the internet, looked scarily like Ali Stephens-and, of course, their clothes. So many of them, even the ones who weren't placed in immediately Classical settings, were wearing these lovely flowing chiffon Grecian dresses (a few too many adjectives there, I think-they say a picture paints a thousand words, so look below to get the gist of what I'm rambling about). Sometimes I wish so much that I lived in a time where women got to wear clothes like this every day-but then I doubt Roman matrons wandered around with their dresses slipping off their shoulders and uncovering their breasts in the way that Waterhouse's women do.

(jwwaterhouse.com)