William Clarke Wontner

William Clarke Wontner (17 January 1857 – 23 September 1930) was an English portrait painter steeped in Academic Classicism and Romanticism.

Under his father's direction, he worked with John William Godward (1861–1922), a noted exponent of what became known as Greco-Roman style, who was an acquaintance of the Wontner family.

[3] In around 1885, Wontner began teaching at the St John's Wood Art School, after he had moved to Hamilton Garden Square.

His style favoured seductively languorous women against classical or oriental marbled backdrops.

[5] His faithfully rendered fabrics draped over patently European models somehow created an air of Orientalism.