Shaw, John Liston Byam (British, 1872-1919)

Shaw was born in India but completed his education at St John's Wood Art School in England. He graduated to the Royal Academy Schools in 1890 and became the leading figure in a London-based group of watercolourists, known as the 'label school' because of their characteristic signature of a trompe l'oeil cartouche. An exhibition of Shaw's work at the Royal Academy in 1898 showed his very personal and stylized Pre-Raphaelite technique, interweaved with a distinct Art Nouveau influence. Shaw was greatly influenced by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and works such as The Blessed Damozel were based on poems by Rossetti. Shaw was a prolific illustrator of books and short stories and his work in this field includes 39 volumes of Shakespeare. Shaw founded the Byam Shaw School of Art in 1910.