An Offering to Venus (1912)
John William Godward
John William Godward is an artist who will forever remain a mystery. He was a pathological loner, with a reclusive nature so profound that modern psychologists have surmised that he suffered from avoidant personality disorder. Shy, consumed by fears of criticism and rejection, and convinced he was not good in social situations, Godward avoided most interpersonal relationships, and as such, did not leave behind a cache of correspondence nor the reminiscences of friends by which the world might know him better. And at age 62, when Godward took his own life, his parents, already ashamed that their son had chosen to be an artist rather than an insurance clerk, found themselves so disgraced by their son's action, that they tried to expunge all record of his very existence; to this day there is only one known photograph of Godward and it is of him as a toddler. ~ M. D. Innis
Text sourced from Underpaintings
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