The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse

The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse

The moment she leaves

In Tennyson’s poem the Lady lives under a curse in a tower near Camelot, allowed to see the world only in a mirror and to weave what she sees into a tapestry. When Lancelot rides past she looks out of the window directly, the mirror cracks, and she takes a boat down the river towards Camelot, singing, knowing she will die. Waterhouse paints the start of that last journey. She sits in white on the tapestry she has woven, which trails over the side of the boat, and lets the mooring chain slip through her hand. Her lips are parted and she looks ahead, past the reeds.

Candles, crucifix and river

The things at the prow finish the story. A crucifix lies there beside three tall candles, and only one is still alight, usually read as a sign that her life is nearly spent. A lantern hangs from the carved prow. The rest is river: rushes in the foreground, dark water, autumn trees closing in behind her and a strip of pale sky at the top right. Waterhouse was painting a generation after the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood broke up, but the white figure against dark foliage and the close attention to each plant are very much in their manner. He painted the Lady twice more, in 1894 and 1915.

Where it hangs

The painting is at Tate Britain in London, given to the nation by Sir Henry Tate in 1894. It measures 153 by 200 centimetres.

About this print

Made from a 4,180-pixel photograph of the original, enough to print sharply at up to about 27 inches on its longest side.

Sources: Tate Britain, London · Wikidata Q2445726 · Wikimedia Commons