Waterhouse’s Lady of Shalott: Through the Cracked Mirror (Visual Essay)

Watch full screen at maximum resolution for the best viewing experience. Painted in 1888, John William Waterhouse’s exquisite “Lady of Shalott” was inspired by Lord Alfred Tennyson’s earlier poem of the same name. The Lady of Shalott is a tragic figure of Arthurian legend, living alone in an isolated tower, and cursed to view the world only from the reflection of a mirror. When the gallant Sir Lancelot reawakens her thirst for life, she leaves and tries to reach King Arthur's Camelot. Instead, her mirror cracks, and she finds not love, but only death. Painted almost 50 years after the poem, subtle differences in the way Waterhouse chooses to portray the Lady reflect changing perceptions and attitudes towards women and their roles in Victorian society. Waterhouse’s “Lady of Shalott” is a harmonious melding of dichotomies: life and death, freedom and imprisonment, free will and predestination, art and artifice. Despite the thoroughly English and Pre-Raphaelite subject and themes, Waterhouse uses French Impressionist techniques to bring life to the canvas. The painting is usually housed in the Tate Britain, but is currently on loan to the Hungarian National Gallery. Tennyson’s poem can be found here for further reading: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45360/the-lady-of-shalott-1842 Music credits to www.bensound.com and Ben Nestor.