"I Am Half-Sick of Shadows," Said the Lady of Shalott

John William Waterhouse, 1849-1917

Signed and dated lower right: J. W. Waterhouse 1915

Oil on canvas

39 i/z x 29 in. (100.3 x 73.7 cm.)

Lent by the Art Gallery of Ontario (acc. no. 71/18) Gift of Mrs. Phillip B. Jackson

Provenance: Mrs. Frederick Cowan; Mrs. Phillip B. Jackson, 1971; Art Gallery of Ontario.

Exhibited: Ladies of Shalott: A Victorian Masterpiece and its Contexts (Providence, 1985)

Catalogue Entry by Elizabeth Nelson

Like the PRB, John William Waterhouse had a predilection for depicting the themes of love unrequited or frustrated by the fates, such as the embowered and cursed Lady of Shalott. In this work, the first of Waterhouse's three versions of the subject, he depicts the Lady of Shalott at the moment when she sees the "young lovers lately wed" and becomes dissatisfied with her isolated life in the tower. The first version (1888) now in the Tate Gallery, depicts the Lady setting out for Camelot in her boat. The second (1894) now in the City Art Gallery in Leeds, portrays the climactic moment when she sees Lancelot in the mirror and turns to look out the window at him. Waterhouse's portrayal of the Lady in this entry as a wistful, young princess in a luxurious tower reveals his underlying interest in the subject of frustrated or unrequited love.

Although the majority of Waterhouse's subjects derive from classical mythology, the informing spirit of his work is that of the Gothic romance. Whether Waterhouse painted a classical subject, as in Psyche; a Shakespearean subject, as in Ophelia; or a Tennysonian subject, as in The Lady of Shalott; his chief concern lay with the portrayal of a beautiful woman in the guise of romantic myth.

The Lady in this work displays the characteristically romantic attributes of long hair, a wistful, beseeching expression, and a childlike innocence. Waterhouse shared many characteristics of the PRB, including an interest in poetry and romantic subjects, but he also differed from it in several important respects, one of which appears in his use of detail. In order to convey his interpretation of the story. Hunt filled his decorative Lady of Shalott with intricate details, the intensity of which, however, detracts the viewer's attention from the Lady herself. Waterhouse's painting, in contrast, involves the viewer with the Lady. The loom and the mirror, which he treats as accessories to the Lady, do not detract from her presence or her reality but enhance them. Although the Lady belongs to the world of legends, she has believability because she exists in a natural, realistically constructed space. The construction of this interior space based upon horizontal and vertical elements, such as the classical columns in the background and the frame of the loom in the foreground, lends the picture a sense of repose and tranquility. Waterhouse provides his Lady with a spacious atmosphere of light and color by placing her slightly back from the picture plane and by using the floor tiles to lead the viewer's eye back into space and into the view of the castle, the bridge, and the river in the mirror. This conception of space, entirely different from the restricted and crowded space of Rossetti's and Burne-Jones's work, converts the dream world of medieval legend into a believable reality.

The most enigmatic of the late Victorian painters, Waterhouse did not belong to any particular school or recognized art-historical movement. Born in Rome, the son of an artist, he began his career painting back- grounds for his father's portraits. He gained admission to the Royal Academy schools in 1871, exhibiting there regularly, and in 1895 he was elected to the academy. Waterhouse also exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, which during the the 1870s and 1880s was the home of Burne-Jones and his followers.

Waterhouse was one of those few artists fortunate enough to be appreciated and recognized during his life- time. Critics praised his directness and simplicity of style, harmonious colors, and his "unusual combination of naturalism and invention" in which he clothed "the expression of his ideas in a guise that was in details faithful to Nature as he saw her, and in general effect adapted to certain preconceived views about the selec- tion of subjects." Baldry counted him among the best of the romantic painters, saying, "He had in a very high degree the capacity to invest his paintings with the right atmosphere of poetic suggestion." — Ladies of Shalott, pp. 171-72

References

Baldry, A. L. "Some Recent Work by Mr. J. W. Waterhouse." Studio 4 (1894): 103-15.

Baldry, A. L. "The Late J. W. Waterhouse, R.A." Studio 4 (1894): 3-14.

Hobson, Anthony. The Art and Life of J. W. Waterhouse, R.A.. London: Studo Vista/Christie's, 1980.

Ladies of Shalott: A Victorian Masterpiece and Its Contexts. Ed. George P. Landow. Providence: Brown University, 1985. no. 66.

Trippi, Peter. J. W. Waterhouse. London: Phaidon, 2002 [Published 17 years after the above commentary was written. GPL]

Last modified 21 May 2007