Last night marked one of the more fantastically cultural evenings I’ve had in London in quite a while with a visit to the Royal Academy of Art to see the JW Waterhouse exhibition that’s been on show for the last few weeks. JW Waterhouse was a modern Pre-Raphaelite painter who worked from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he bypassed the preference for more modern art styles (such as those coming into fashion with artists like Manet and Picasso) and continued to paint in the Pre-Raphaelite style throughout his life. To cut through the art jargon, this means that everything he painted was pretty. Modern art, of which I am quite a big fan, usually has its detractors but Waterhouse’s stunning works, based on mythology and filled with colour and feeling could draw very little dislike from even the most hard hearted art critic.

I, and my partner in art appreciation for the evening, the lovely Alicia from another London tech startup around the corner from Spoonfed, clearly were not the only ones with art on the mind for a Friday night.  We arrived after work to find a long and winding queue.  After almost an hour of waiting – a task made painless by the comfortable late-summer night weather and the glorious Royal Academy courtyard around us – we finally were able to enter the exhibit.

Because I wasn’t going to do a review for Spoonfed but for fun on my own time, I won’t be critiquing the art (also because I’m highly unqualified to do so) but I’ve found online reproductions of some of my favourites which I’ve included below:

I was also quite excited to see in some of the sketch books of JW Waterhouse on display a familiar face – familiar because it had served as a study for me in a high school art class.  Clearly I had spent enough time trying to recreate Waterhouse’s pencil work that it stuck with me even though I had never known it was Waterhouse’s study at the time.

All in all it was an amazing evening and exhibit and I’m so glad Alicia suggested we go. While I may not make enough time to experience the fantastic art available to me in London, I always enjoy it when I do.