John Roddam Spencer Stanhope was an English artist, who represented Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His subject matter was mythological, allegorical, biblical and contemporary.
Background
John Roddam Spencer Stanhope was born on January 20, 1829 in Yorkshire, United Kingdom. He was the son of John Spencer Stanhope, a classical antiquarian, and Elizabeth Wilhemina Coke. John Stanhope had one brother, Walter Stanhope, and four sisters — Anna Maria Wilhelmina, Eliza Anne, Anne Alicia, and Louisa Elizabeth.
Education
John studied at Rugby School and Christ Church in Oxford.
At the beginning of John's career, he served as an assistant of George Frederic Watts for some of his architectural paintings. In 1853, they traveled together to Italy and in 1856-1857 to Asia Minor. Upon his return, John was invited by Dante Gabriel Rossetti to participate in the Oxford murals project, painting "Sir Gawaine and the Damsels".
His first exhibited picture Thoughts of the Past, which was shown in 1859 at the Royal Academy, was one of the few pictures he painted in the acutely aware and vivid style of the Pre-Raphaelites. But by the 1860’s the original spirit and cohesion of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had been lost.
In the late 1870s, Stanhope started to paint in egg tempera, contributing to its revival. Among the works which he painted in tempera is Love and the Maiden (1877), which is also considered to be one of his finest works. Its style shows influence from Burne-Jones and Rossetti, but its content has changed markedly from his previous Pre-Raphaelite paintings.
Considered among the avant-garde artists of the 1870s, Stanhope became a regular exhibitor at the Grosvenor Gallery, the alternative to the Royal Academy.
In 1880, John moved permanently to Florence, where he painted the reredos of the English Church and other work in the Chapel of Marlborough College.