John William Waterhouse...

Yesterday I went to Montreal for Yolande's mother's funeral.

Since I was there, it was my opportunity to see the John William Waterhouse exhibit at the Musee des Beaux Arts, which ends tomorrow. In doing this, I broke my rule of museum exhibits, as I have done often before: Never go to a prestigious international exhibit on the last day of the show. Or the last week.

But it was my chance, so... Yes, the lines were long, even to get to the coatcheck. But it was worth it. For $3 they rent you an audio of music supposed to go with the paintings, and they advise that you take plenty of time, and sit on one of the benches contemplating the appropriate painting while relaxing and listening to the music. The first music, for example, was an opera about Cleopatra, supposed to go with Waterhouse's portrait of Cleopatra.

It didn't work out that way. The rooms were all so crowded that I'd heard most of the Cleopatra piece before I even got through the line to get into the first room. By the time I got to the Cleopatra room, we were onto another piece, and it was so crowded there was nowhere to sit, and even if you cold sit, you couldn't see a thing because of the throngs of people.

No matter. The music was nice, the pictures were gorgeous, and I had a great time. It would have been better without the crowds, though.

Waterhouse is probably most famous for his paintings of Tennyson's Idylls of the King, especially The Lady of Shalott. It was probably those paintings, given my teen-age love of the Arthurian legends and art related to it, that first made me a Waterhouse fan. (Not as much as a Burne-Jones fan, but still a fan.) And guess what? Seeing so much of his work all together, I decided I liked the Arthurian works least of his works, and my favourites were the historical ones, and the ancient myths. Some works I expected to see weren't there, and some that were there were unfamiliar to me, which was a great surprise.

Waterhouse drew an awful lot of water. Was he trying to live up to his name?

My very favourites:

1. Miranda, from The Tempest. I love the tempest-tossed ship.

2. Mariana of the South. I don't know the story here but I love the dress, love the pose. I must look it up.

3. Fair Rosamund. I love the picture and the many details in it, and Rosamund Clifford has always been a favourite romantic figure, to go with the fascinating Henry II and his family.

4. The Favourites of the Emperor Honorius. Honorius was Emperor of Rome when the Visigoths sacked Rome, and I think Waterhouse's notion is that in despair or in reckless indolence or simple helplessness, he then concerned himself more with feeding the birds than with matters of state.

( 5. After the Dance... )

I'm so glad I got to see this.