A Souvenir 1920

John William Godward made "A Souvenir," an oil painting, sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. The level of detail is astounding, you can almost feel the cool marble beneath her and the beads slipping through her fingers. Godward’s surface is so smooth it’s practically invisible. It looks like a photograph! This woman is totally absorbed in her thoughts, carefully considering each bead. I'm fascinated by the way light plays on the folds of her dress. The almost lavender-pink is built up of the tiniest brushstrokes. If you look closely, you can see how Godward used thin, almost translucent layers of paint to create depth and luminosity, so the whole dress shimmers. Someone like Alma Tadema – another painter totally obsessed with the ancient world – comes to mind. But, where Tadema goes big on spectacle, Godward is more intimate, quieter. I mean, what is she thinking? What does she remember? Ultimately, the painting remains a mystery, and that's part of its enduring appeal.