French Anglo Saxon Venus: Lady Godiva by Jules-Joseph Lefebvre

Lady Godiva (1890) by Jules- Jacques Lefebvre. 19th Century print from the painting (original now lost)

There are surprisingly few paintings featuring Lady Godiva, given the primal appeal of a naked lady on a horse. Lord Leighton had a go in 1892 but his picture is a disappointment (at least as far as Venus Observations goes) as he chose to portray the moment when Godiva decided to do the ride so she is, annoyingly, clothed (nice braided hair, though).

Lady Godiva (1892) by Lord Leighton

George Frederick Watts' version is unlike any other, depicting what we take to be an emotionally drained Godiva being helped from her horse by her maids. Either that or she appears to have ridden herself into a massive orgasm (obviously not riding side-saddle). One can never be quite sure with Watts.

Lady Godiva (1880) by George Frederick Watts

Later, and rather surprisingly, Salvador Dali had a go at the subject a couple of times.

Lady Godiva (1976) by Salvador Dali


Lady Godiva (1982) by Slavador Dali



Lefebvre in his studio

One of the few other painters in the nineteenth century to produce a Lady Godiva picture was Jules-Joseph Lefebvre (1836-1911). His Lady Godiva pre-dates Collier's by seven years and she rides, more decorously, side saddle. His version of Dark Ages Coventry looks more like medieval Paris but then, although he got closer, Collier's version has her riding through late Norman architecture when her husband died nearly ten years before the Norman invasion. Real Anglo Saxon houses would have looked like this:

Lefebvre is not well known in the UK but we like this quote from a reviewer of his exhibition at the Paris Salon in 1881: “It is sufficient to just mention his name in order to immediately evoke the memory and the image of the thousand adorable creatures of which he is the father.... Jules Lefèbvre, better than anyone else caresses, with a brush both delicate and sure, the undulating contour of the feminine form.” Quite right M. Enault.

Chloe (1875)

Unlike the aristocratic Collier, Lefebvre was the son of a baker, but he sent Lefebvre fils to Paris to study under Léon Cogniet and at l'École des Beaux Arts. His first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1855 and then spent some years trying to win the coveted Prix de Rome; the aim of every young painter as the prize was five years of study in that city and a succesful reputation. He came second in 1859 and won in 1861.

Femme couchee (1868)

During his time in Rome he painted his fiorst female nude (in 1863). On his return to Paris his approach to painting was transformed and he started to work much more from life. His reclining nude exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1868 was much praised.

La Verite (1870)

In 1870 his painting, La Verite, became his first major success. She is lit in such a way that your eye is drawn to her voluptuous torso before following up her carefully shadowed arm until reaching the mirror (the symbol of truth) itself; caressing her with your eyes as Lefebvre himself has caressed her with his brush, to echo M. Enault. The model for this painting was a French actress, Sophie Croizette. This picture won him the Légion d'honneur.

Sophie Croizette. the model for La Verite

Mary Magdalen in the Grotto (1876)

Lefébvre sensibly started to concentrate on nudes and soon came to rival Bouguereau, although unlike the latter, who we will feature shortly, he used many different models. The author Alexandre Dumas was a big fan of his work and bought at least one nude from him.

l'Odalisque (1874)

In the 1870s he became a teacher at the Academie Julien where he insisted on absolute precision in life drawing from his students.

One of his most celebrated paintings was La Cigale (the grasshoper). Whilst this may look like a picture of a rather grumpy looking girl it was based on the Aesop fable The Grasshopper and the Ant where the grasshopper spends all summer dancing and singing whilst the ant prepares for the winter. When the winter arrives the grasshopper is cold, hungry and unprepared.

La Cigale (1872)

The girl is the grasshopper suddenly realising her folly. The picture was painted just after the Franco-Prussian War and was an allegorical attack on Napoleon III whose unpreparedness led to the disaster of the Paris Commune uprising in 1871.

Lefebvre painted two more versions of it as miniatures.

Jules-Jacques Lefèbvre died on February 24th 1911.

Pandora

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Anglo-Saxon Venus: Lady Godiva by John Collier

Lady Godiva (1897) by the Hon. John Collier

Other than Eve, Lady Godiva is probably the most famous naked woman of all time. Unlike Eve (unless you are Sarah Palin) Lady Godiva was a real person.

Lady Godiva (Godgifu in Old English) was the wife of Leofric (968–1057), Earl of Mercia and she is mentioned in the Domesday book which notes her as one of the few Anglo-Saxons and the only woman to remain as a major landholder after the Conquest (although she had died by the time the book was compiled in 1086). The legend goes that Godiva tried to persuade her husband to cut onerous taxes on the citizens of Coventry. Fed up with her incessant nagging he agreed if she would ride through the streets naked. She agreed to do this having told everyone to stay indoors with the windows shut. Peeping Tom disobeyed and was struck blind as a result.

The story is utter nonsense, of course, and is not supported by any contemporary accounts whatsoever, given that there is quite a lot about Godiva's activities in the records. The story first appeared in the early thirteenth century and all the Peeping Tom stuff didn't appear until the seventeenth century. Her long hair, which conveniently covered her nakedness, was also a later edition.

Collier's picture is pretty much the definitive one as seen through a post Pre-Raphaelite lens which makes her a redhead. Interestingly, some shards of 14th century stained glass of a likely portrait of her, found at the site of a priory she endowed, made her a blonde.

John Collier (1850–1934) was the son of a judge and attended Eton and Heidleberg. Initially he was destined for the City but declared that he wished to be a painter. His father introduced him to Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema but he was unable to take him on as a pupil.

The painter's wife Marian Huxley in her wedding dress (1880)

Eventually he studied under Edward Poynter and attended the Slade school as did his first wife, Marian Huxley, the daughter of the President of the Royal Society. She died in 1887 and Collier then married her sister, Ethel. This was illegal in Britain at the time and so they had to get married in Norway. Their marriage was not regularised until the passing of the The Deceased Wife’s Sister Act of 1907. Their son later became British Ambassador to Norway.

Collier is best known for being a portrait painter, and there are many of his paintings of distinguished Victorians in the National Portrait Gallery. He painted Darwin, Kitchener, Ellen Terry and Kipling amongst many others. He also did some classical genre and mythological paintings.

Clytemnestra (1882)

Despite being a pillar of the establishment his painting of Clytemnestra got him into trouble, due to it's bloody nature and one northern city banned it from being exhibited. A frighteningly muscular looking (it was painted following a performance at Oxford where the part was played by a man) Clytemnestra stands with a giant axe dripping blood. That's also blood on her dress, not a pattern, something which becomes more obvious if you see the original which is in the Guidhall Art Gallery in the City of London. He returned to the theme in 1914 with a more lightly armed and lightly dressed, but just as scary image.

Clytemnestra (1914)

Circe (1885)

The Pharaoh's Handmaidens (1887)

Collier did a few other nudes such as Circe, Lillith (1887), which we will examine another time, The Pharaoh's Handmaidens and the much later, The Water Nymph.

The Water Nymph (1923)

His painting of Lady Godiva is on display in the Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry, naturally.

Collier and his wife's memorial at Golders Green Crematorium, London.

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