''I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Said the Lady of Shalott'' is a painting by

John William Waterhouse John William Waterhouse (6 April 184910 February 1917) was an English painter known for working first in the Academic style and for then embracing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. His artworks were known for their dep ...

completed in 1915. It is the third painting by Waterhouse that depicts a scene from the

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

poem, "

The Lady of Shalott "The Lady of Shalott" is a lyrical ballad by the 19th-century English poet Alfred Tennyson and one of his best-known works. Inspired by the 13th-century Italian short prose text '' Donna di Scalotta'', the poem tells the tragic story of Elain ...

". The title of the painting is a quotation from the last two lines in the fourth and final verse of the second part of Tennyson's poem: This painting depicts an earlier point in the tale of the Lady of Shalott than those depicted by Waterhouse in his previous two works of 1888 and 1894; the Lady is still confined in her tower,

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal th ...

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

, viewing the world outside only through the reflection in the large mirror in the background. In the painting, the mirror reveals a bridge over a river leading to the walls and towers of

Camelot Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as the ...

; also visible nearby are a man and a woman, perhaps the "two young lovers lately wed" referred to in Tennyson's poem. The scene is set shortly before an image of

Lancelot Lancelot du Lac (French for Lancelot of the Lake), also written as Launcelot and other variants (such as early German ''Lanzelet'', early French ''Lanselos'', early Welsh ''Lanslod Lak'', Italian ''Lancillotto'', Spanish ''Lanzarote del Lago' ...

appears in the mirror, enticing the Lady out of her tower to her death. The painting shows the Lady of Shalott resting from her weaving. The lady wears a red dress, in a room with Romanesque columns holding up the arches of the window reflected in the mirror. The frame of the

loom A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but th ...

and the geometric tiles of the floor lead the viewer into the room, where reds, yellows and blues echo the more vivid colours outside. A single poppy can be seen reflected in the mirror. The shuttles of the loom resemble boats, foreshadowing the Lady's death. The painting was exhibited at the

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, sc ...

in 1916. It was sold from the estate of the accountant John George Griffiths CVO at Hampton's in 1923 for 300

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from t ...

, and passed through the hands of the art dealer Arthur de Casseres. It was owned by Mr and Mrs Frederick Cowan, and inherited by their great-niece, the wife of Canadian engineer Philip Berney Jackson, who donated to the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Beve ...

in 1971. File:John William Waterhouse - The Lady of Shalott - Google Art Project edit.jpg, ''

'', 1888
Tate Britain, London File:The Lady of Shallot Looking at Lancelot.jpg, ''

The Lady of Shalott Looking at Lancelot ''The Lady of Shalott Looking at Lancelot'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by John William Waterhouse, completed in 1894. It measures . The artist presented it to Leeds Art Gallery in 1895. Description This is the second of three major paint ...

'', 1894
Leeds City Art Gallery

References

External links

I am half sick of shadows,' said The Lady of Shalott'' (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott, Part II)
Art Gallery of Ontario
John William Waterhouse. ''‘I am half sick of shadows,’ said the Lady of Shalott''
Art Gallery of Ontario
''J.W. Waterhouse and the Magic of Color''
Dani Cavallaro, p.52-53

victorianweb.org {{Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 1915 paintings Arthurian paintings Paintings by John William Waterhouse Collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario Women in art Bridges in art Paintings based on works by Alfred, Lord Tennyson Mirrors in art