''The Lady of Shalott'' is an oil painting by

William Holman Hunt William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolis ...

, made -1905, and depicting a scene from

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 ...

's 1833 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 painting is held by the

Wadsworth Atheneum The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School lands ...

, in Hartford, Connecticut. A smaller version is held by the

Manchester Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three ...

Background

In Tennyson's poem, the Lady of Shalott is confined to a tower on an island near

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 th ...

, cursed not to leave the tower or look out of its windows. She weaves a tapestry, viewing the outside world only through reflections in a mirror behind her. The painting depicts the pivotal scene in the third part of the poem: the Lady spies "bold Sir Launcelot" in her mirror. The sight of the handsome knight and the sound of him singing draws her away from her loom to the window, yarn still clinging around her knees, bringing down the curse upon her as "the mirror crack'd from side to side". She leaves the tower to take a boat across the river, but meets her death before she reaches Camelot.

Description

The painting depicts the moment immediately after the Lady of Shalott has looked directly out of her window at Sir Launcelot, as her fate begins to unwind. She is standing within her circular loom, with an unfinished and indistinct tapestry intended to represent

Galahad Sir Galahad (), sometimes referred to as Galeas () or Galath (), among other versions of his name, is a knight of King Arthur's Round Table and one of the three achievers of the Holy Grail in Arthurian legend. He is the illegitimate son of Si ...

presenting the

Holy Grail The Holy Grail (french: Saint Graal, br, Graal Santel, cy, Greal Sanctaidd, kw, Gral) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miracu ...

Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more wi ...

, However, the weaving is breaking, trapping her in its threads. She is wearing a brightly coloured bodice over a cream chemise, with a pink skirt. Her feet are bare, with her slip-on

pattens Pattens are protective overshoes that were worn in Europe from the Middle Ages until the early 20th century. Pattens were worn outdoors over a normal shoe, had a wooden or later wood and metal sole, and were held in place by leather or cloth ba ...

nearby, and her long hair has whipped up wildly above her head. Disturbed from their perch, a pair of doves are flying past a large silver candlestick, while another pair escape through an upper window. Behind her is the large round mirror that she had used to observe the world outside her tower, but it has "crack'd from side to side": the reflection shows Launcelot riding past, and the pillars of the Lady's window. The irises littering the floor indicate that her purity is stained. To her left is an oval

roundel A roundel is a circular disc used as a symbol. The term is used in heraldry, but also commonly used to refer to a type of national insignia used on military aircraft, generally circular in shape and usually comprising concentric rings of diff ...

of the adoration of the Christ Child by Mary (representing humility), based on a work by Lucca della Robbia that Hunt owned. The roundel on her right shows a haloed Hercules (representing valour) during his labour to take apples from the garden of the

Hesperides In Greek mythology, the Hesperides (; , ) are the nymphs of evening and golden light of sunsets, who were the "Daughters of the Evening" or "Nymphs of the West". They were also called the Atlantides () from their reputed father, the Titan At ...

, who slept while their guardian serpent (under Hercules's left foot) was defeated. As a study for this detail, Hunt made an actual plaster bas-relief, now in the

. The Hesperides' failure in their duty mirrors the lady’s. Above the roundels is a frieze of a stylised sky, containing cherubs and haloed female figures guiding planets and a sphere of stars. One of the angelic beings stomps on a serpent. The frieze symbolizes harmony and patience, values that Hunt believed the lady should have possessed. The work measures is signed with a monogram to the lower left.

History

The painting is based on Hunt's drawing, which was engraved on wood by John Thompson and printed in the lavishly illustrated 10th edition of Tennyson's ''

Poems Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

'', published by

Edward Moxon Edward Moxon (12 December 1801 – 3 June 1858) was a British poet and publisher, significant in Victorian literature. Biography Moxon was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire, where his father Michael worked in the wool trade. In 1817 he left ...

in 1857, which also included illustrations by

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

John Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...

, Thomas Creswick,

John Callcott Horsley John Callcott Horsley RA (29 January 1817 – 18 October 1903) was an English academic painter of genre and historical scenes, illustrator, and designer of the first Christmas card. He was a member of the artist's colony in Cranbrook. Child ...

William Mulready William Mulready (1 April 1786 – 7 July 1863) was an Irish genre painter living in London. He is best known for his romanticising depictions of rural scenes, and for creating Mulready stationery letter sheets, issued at the same time as the P ...

and

Clarkson Stanfield Clarkson Frederick Stanfield (3 December 179318 May 1867) was a prominent English painter (often inaccurately credited as William Clarkson Stanfield) who was best known for his large-scale paintings of dramatic marine subjects and landscapes. ...

. Hunt's drawing and painting were based on earlier sketches, inspired by Jan van Eyck's 1434 marriage portrait, ''

The Arnolfini Portrait ''The Arnolfini Portrait'' (or ''The Arnolfini Wedding'', ''The Arnolfini Marriage'', the ''Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife'', or other titles) is a 1434 oil painting on oak panel by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. It f ...

''. William Holman Hunt gave the painting to his second wife Edith in 1902. It was put up for auction at Christie’s in 1919, but bought in by the auction house for £3,360. On Edith's death, the painting was inherited by their daughter Gladys in 1931, and then by her adopted daughter Mrs. Elisabeth Burt in 1952. It was sold at Christie's in 1961, bought by New York collector John Nicholson for £9,975; he sold it to the

the same year in 1961, who made the purchase using from Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund; they were the wives of the brothers George Gleason Sumner and Francis Chester Sumner.

Another version

A much smaller oil on panel version, –1905, , was left to the

by John Edward Yates in 1934. This version was preparatory study for the larger picture, (Organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, in association with Manchester Art Gallery) and it features a number of differences. Notably, the roundels show instead the

Agony in the Garden The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane is an episode in the life of Jesus. After the Last Supper, Jesus enters a garden where he experiences great anguish and prays to be delivered from his impending death on the cross ("Take this cup from me") ...

(left) and

Christ in Majesty Christ in Majesty or Christ in Glory ( la, Maiestas Domini) is the Western Christian image of Christ seated on a throne as ruler of the world, always seen frontally in the centre of the composition, and often flanked by other sacred figures, whos ...

(right). The frieze consists of a row of standing cherubs.

References

Sources

''The Lady of Shalott''
Wadsworth Atheneum
''The Lady of Shalott'', William Holman Hunt (1827–1910), Manchester Art Gallery
ArtUK
William Holman Hunt, ''The Lady of Shalott'', engraved by J. Thompson, published 1857
Tate Gallery
''The Lady of Shalott'', 1857, After William Holman Hunt (1827 - 1910)
Royal Academy
"‘The Breaking of the Web’: William Holman Hunt’s two early versions of The Lady of Shalott"
''Art Journal'' 32, Alison Inglis & Cecilia O'Brien, 18 June 2014, National Gallery of Victoria

Encyclopaedia Romana
"In Focus: How Holman Hunt’s Lady of Shallot was inspired by Van Eyck’s greatest masterpiece"
Lilias Wigan, ''Country Life'', 2 March 2018
The Moxon illustrated edition of Tennyson's ''Poems''
British Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Lady of Shalott 1905 paintings Paintings by William Holman Hunt Paintings in the Wadsworth Atheneum Birds in art Paintings based on works by Alfred, Lord Tennyson Mirrors in art