Shop art print and framed art The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse

The Lady of Shalott is an 1888 oil on canvas by the English Pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse. Waterhouse composed three different versions of this theme, in 1888, 1894 and 1915. The painting is a representation of a scene from the poem of the same name, written by Lord Alfred Tennyson in 1832, in which the poet describes the fate of a young woman who is locked up for some secret reason in a tower close to King Arthur's castle, Camelot. Tennyson's poem tells the story of a young girl named Elaine who carries a curse: she must stay in the tower and weave a long web. The curse forbids her to leave the tower or even look out of the window. A mirror hangs in her room, reflecting the world, and the young girl must weave a tapestry, depicting the wonders of the world she has managed to see. One day, she sees the knight Lancelot in the mirror and leaves the room to look at him from the window. At that very moment, the curse is fulfilled, the tapestry is unravelled and the mirror cracks. 115. The mirror shattered from side to side 116. " The curse has fallen on me! 117. The Lady of Shalott Elaine flees the tower. On one bank of the river, she finds a boat and writes her name on it. She floats towards Camelot dressed in virginal "snowy white", singing a sad song before dying without ever reaching Camelot. The dead woman's love is not rewarded. When people find her, Sir Lancelot simply comments on her "beautiful face": He says: "She has a pretty face In his mercy God [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the modern period. It belongs to the pre-raphaelism style.

 

« The Lady of Shalott » is kept at Tate Britain, Londres, Royaume-Uni.

 

Find the full description of The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse on Wikipedia.