John William Godward (9 Aug. 1861 – 13 Dec. 1922); English painter from the end of the Neo-Classicist era. He was a protégé of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, but his style of painting fell out of favor with the arrival of painters such as Picasso. He committed suicide at the age of 61 and is said to have written in his suicide note that "the world is not big enough for myself and a Picasso". His already estranged family, who had disapproved of his becoming an artist, were ashamed of his suicide and burned his papers. No photographs of Godward are known to survive. When he moved to Italy with one of his models in 1912, his family cut his image from family (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Godward) Over the course of his 40-year career, John Godward rarely deviated from painting beautiful women in robes. This style made him famous and he was often praised for depicting the rippling movement of classical clothing with incredible accuracy. But his paintings weren’t universal critical hits, with many dismissing his idealized and historically inaccurate portraits as “Victorians in togas.” His own family despised his choice of career and disowned him after he moved to Italy in 1912, destroying all photographs that reminded them of his existence In his old age, Godward produced fewer and fewer paintings as his health deteriorated. His last known paintings are Contemplation and Nu Sur La Plage (Nude On The Beach”, both of which were completed in the months before his death. Nu Sur La Plage is especially significant, because it marks a deviation from Godward’s usual style of classical scenes featuring fine clothes and marble surfaces. By then, Godward’s classical style was considered extremely unfashionable, but he apparently felt unable to change. In December 1922, he took his own life, writing in his suicide note that the world was not big enough for both him and Picasso. (http://listverse.com/2015/07/18/10-final-paintings-by-artists-who-committed-suicide/) undefined

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