John William Godward 1861-1922 | British classicist painter

John William Godward was an british painter from the end of the Pre-Raphaelite / Neo-Classicist era. He was a protege of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema but his style of painting fell out of favour with the arrival of painters like Picasso. He committed suicide at the age of 61 and is said to have written in his suicide note that "the world was not big enough" for him and a Picasso. His already estranged family, who had disapproved of him becoming an artist, were ashamed of his suicide and burned his papers. No photographs of Godward are known to survive.