約翰·威廉·戈德沃德(John William Godward)1861-1922，是一位英國新古典主義藝術(shù)家，師承學(xué)院派大師弗雷德里克·萊頓和勞倫斯·阿爾瑪·塔德瑪?shù)人囆g(shù)家，他更鮮艷的色調(diào)和整體風(fēng)格經(jīng)常讓他與拉斐爾前派混淆，但他實(shí)際上屬于新古典主義風(fēng)格。 

　　戈德沃德最初是在當(dāng)代藝術(shù)家威廉·克拉克·沃特納的父親的指導(dǎo)下學(xué)習(xí)建筑的，兩位藝術(shù)家結(jié)下了終生的友誼，并為彼此提供了藝術(shù)支持和靈感。

　　戈德沃德鐘情于重現(xiàn)古典羅馬的理想主義場(chǎng)景。他喜歡穿著古典服裝的女性，她們?cè)诠诺淞_馬場(chǎng)景中帶著憂郁的氣息閑逛，通常被毛皮或大理石包圍。由于戈德沃德對(duì)建筑風(fēng)格和時(shí)代服裝進(jìn)行了大量研究，以使他的畫作更加真實(shí)。他有很多富有的贊助人，包括古典維多利亞時(shí)期的學(xué)者和想要建立藝術(shù)收藏的新富翁。

　　戈德沃德早期的職業(yè)生涯很成功，并定期在倫敦皇家學(xué)院展出作品，并受到公眾的熱烈歡迎。然而，正如藝術(shù)的發(fā)展與社會(huì)發(fā)展一樣，隨著巴勃羅、畢加索等現(xiàn)代藝術(shù)家的出現(xiàn)，風(fēng)格和思潮很快發(fā)生了變化，戈德沃德作品風(fēng)格處于失勢(shì)的境地。戈德沃德是創(chuàng)作出如此美麗作品的天才，然而造化弄人，61歲時(shí)，他自殺了，留下一張紙條，上面寫著“世界對(duì)我和畢加索來說還不夠大”。

　　戈德沃德的家人因?yàn)樗钊藗牡慕Y(jié)局而希望把他忘得一干二凈，之后燒毀了他所有的個(gè)人資料和照片，如今僅存一張照片，他在很大程度上被遺忘在藝術(shù)史上，他的大部分生活仍然是個(gè)謎。

John William Godward was an English Neoclassical artist from who lived from 1861 to 1922.   He studied under artists such as Frederic Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema. His more vibrant color palette and overall style often gets him confused with Pre-Raphaelites, but he actually painted in the Neoclassical style.  He was interested in recreating idealistic scenes of Classical Rome.

Godward had initially actually studied architecture under contemporary artist, William Clarke Wontner's father. The two artists formed a life-long friendship, and provided artistic support and inspiration for each other.

The favorite subjects for Godward were women in classical dress lounging about with an air of melancholy in a Classic Roman structure, usually surrounded by items of fur or marble. Since  Godward was a classical scholar, he did a lot of research on architectural styles and period clothing to give his paintings more authenticity. He had a lot of wealthy patrons including other Victorian era scholars of the Classic age and newly rich people who wanted to build their art collections.

Godward was disowned by his family after he moved to Italy with one of his models and he was actually physically cut out from all their photographs. He had a successful career early on and regularly had pieces exhibited at the Royal Academy in London with positive public reception. However, as art is wont to do, the styles and schools of thought soon changed with the advent of modern artists such as Pablo Picasso.

For someone who created such beautiful works, Godward had a tragic end. At 61 years of age, he committed suicide, leaving a note that read “the world is not big enough for myself and Picasso”. Godward’s family, after already disproving of his career choice, burned all his personal papers and photographs after the disgrace of his suicide. He has largely been forgotten in the annals of art history and much of his life remains a mystery.