John Collier: Lady Godiva, 1898

John Maler Collier (1850-1934) was a leading English artist, and an author. He painted in the Pre-Raphaelite style, and was one of the most prominent portrait painters of his generation. He was much influenced by Lawrence Alma-Tadema and also John Everett Millais. His early training was at the Slade School, working there under it's principal E.L.Poynter, and then went on to study in Munich and finally Paris, where he was taught by J.P.Laurens. He regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy and also at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, of which he became vice-president.

Lady Godiva was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly remembered for a legend dating back to at least the 13th century, in which she rode naked - covered only by her long hair - through the streets of Coventry to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation that her husband, Leofric, imposed on his tenants. The name "Peeping Tom" for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend, in which a man named Thomas watched her ride and was struck blind or dead.

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HC-1417: card size 7" x 5" (178mm x 127mm