J. W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite

J.W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite (Groninger Museum; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2008-10) explored Waterhouse's response to a number of contemporary issues, ranging from antiquarianism and the classical heritage to occultism and the 'New Woman'. Professor Elizabeth Prettejohn was appointed co-curator of the exhibition, which took place during her tenure at Bristol. She co-edited the exhibition catalogue, which won a Historians of British Art Book Award 2011, contributing a catalogue essay on 'Waterhouse’s Imagination’ and a number of catalogue entries. The show was a critical success, and made an important contribution to the scholarship on Waterhouse, both through the exhibition catalogue, and through online curatorial lectures. Simon Poë (Apollo, September 2009), reported that ‘it allows an understanding of Waterhouse as an artist on the edge of the establishment and on the cusp of a new age.’ Katie Tyreman (Visual Culture in Britain, November 2009) singled out Prettejohn’s essay as making ‘a persuasive case for the “distinctly modern” character of the artist’s painting’. Julian Treuherz (The Burlington Magazine, October 2009) likewise noted that ‘the catalogue contains some important new material, notably the essay by Elizabeth Prettejohn, who gives a reading that draws out Waterhouse’s interest in occultism and universal nature mythology’.

Online reviews

Gerald Isaaman, ‘The Review: Why Waterhouse Knowledge has Remained a Little Sketchy’, Camden New Journal, 16 July 2009

Andrew Lambirth, ‘Touch of Darkness: J. W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite’, The Spectator, 29 August 2009

Franny Moyle, ‘Pre-Raphaelite art: the paintings that obsessed the Victorians’, The Telegraph, 17 June 2009