the lady of shallot - litt angl · - painting illustrates alfred tennyson’s poem = the lady of...
TRANSCRIPT
Monday, March 23
RomanticismRomantic movement
The Lady of Shalott, by
John William Waterhouse, oil paint on canvas, 1888.
Summary
The picture illustrates the following lines from part IV of Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shalott':
And down the river's dim expanse Like some bold seer in a trance, Seeing all his own mischance - With glassy countenance Did she look to Camelot. And at the closing of the day She loosed the chain, and down she lay; The broad stream bore her far away, The Lady of Shalott.
- Painting illustrates Alfred Tennyson’s poem = The Lady of Shalott, published in 1832. Lady is on river which flows down from King Arthur's castle at Camelot. Draped over boat is fabric lady wove in a tower on island Shalott.
- One day she caught a glimpse of handsome Lancelot’s reflection, and could not resist looking at him directly. The mirror cracked from side to side, and she felt a curse coming upon her. The punishment that follows results in her drifting in her boat downstream 'singing her last song’ to Camelot, but she died before she reached there.
Beside there are three candles, often used to symbolise life. Two have been blown out. This suggests her life will end soon, as she floats down the river. Tennyson was a popular subject for the artists of this period, particularly the Pre-Raphaelites (a secret society of young artists (and one writer), founded in London in 1848).
The landscape setting = highly naturalistic. - The painting made during Waterhouse's brief period of plein-air painting.
- Setting = not identified, although the Waterhouses frequently visited Somerset and Devon.
- The model traditionally said to be the artist's wife. Waterhouse's sketchbook contains numerous pencil studies for this and painting of the same title made six years later (1894, Leeds City Art Gallery).
- This second work shows Lady at the moment she looks out of window and curse fulfilled.
- Waterhouse also made sketches of final scenes in which boat bearing Lady floats into Camelot.
The Lady of Shalott is one of original paintings from gift of Sir Henry Tate.