![John William Godward - A Fair Reflection [1915]](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2900/14238813769_396077b81c_o.jpg)
This recent rediscovery adds a masterpiece to the known oeuvre of Godward's classically styled beauties. He painted numerous three-quarter length portraits, but few are as resolved as A Fair Reflection. The model is dressed in a grass green coloured stola (the feminine form of the ancient Roman toga), drawn tightly at the waist with a palla (Roman shawl) of a deep wine colour, and tied with an exquisitely-painted patterned yellow ribbon. Her hair is twisted into a long cascading braid, which she is arranging on top of her head using the golden hairpins that rest on the marble surface in front of her. The sitter was Godward's favourite model, an Italian woman who some scholars suggest may have been his mistress. The artist had left London in 1911 to take up residence in a studio at the Villa Strohl Fern in Rome and, according to Godward family lore: "He left in a rush, running off with his Italian model to Italy... His mother never forgave him for this breach of conduct. He shocked the family by living with his model.”
[Sold for $1,454,500 at Sotheby’s, New York - Oil on canvas, 116.8 x 80 cm]