John Collier’s “Lady Godiva,” with its meticulously descriptive style, rich color and fine, nearly invisible brushstrokes eloquently expresses the dignity and humility of the 11th century noblewoman’s fabled ride to protest the excessive taxation by her husband. Collier (1850- 1934) was a British Pre-Raphaelite painter who was educated in London by Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Edward Poynter, later moving to Paris to study with Jean-Paul Laurens. Insisting upon extreme, sometimes workmanlike accuracy in his paintings of historical and mythological scenarios, Collier also painted numerous portraits of kings, noblemen, actors and socialites, and was a founding member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

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