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THE MOMENT
What is happening in The Lady of Shalott?
A woman sits in a boat beside the bank, with chain links hanging beneath her fingers. Tate connects the painting with the departure in part IV of Tennyson’s poem. [1] In the revised poem, she loosens the boat’s chain and the stream carries her away. [2]
FROM POEM TO PICTURE
What happens before the boat scene?
In the poem, the Lady weaves while seeing the world through a mirror. She has heard that a curse will fall on her if she looks towards Camelot, although she does not know its nature. When Lancelot passes, she leaves her loom and looks; the mirror cracks and she declares that the curse has come upon her. [2]
Tate’s online caption describes her freeing a boat to seek Lancelot. [1] The mirror and loom belong to the story leading up to the boat.
Look at the Lady’s open mouth and upward gaze, then find the fingers and hanging links below and to the left. Follow the chain below her fingers, then return to her face.
LOOK CLOSELY
Follow the chain, candles and river
The hand and chain
Chain links hang beneath her fingers. In the 1998 Tate collection text, Terry Riggs describes her as letting go of the boat’s chain. [1] The revised poem describes her loosening the boat’s chain. [2] Follow the chain from the fingers down to the hanging links.
Three candles and a crucifix
Three candles stand near the bow, with a crucifix beside them. Terry Riggs names these objects in the 1998 Tate collection text. [1] In the photograph shown here, a bright flame is visible on one candle; no flame is clearly visible on the other two.
Locate the small figure on the crucifix near the bow, then compare it with the standing candles. In the 1998 collection text, Terry Riggs describes the Lady as staring at the crucifix. [1] This is the museum writer’s reading of her gaze; compare it with the upward tilt of her face in the photograph. Tate’s online caption reads the low-flying swallows, wind-blown hair and extinguishing candles as clues to the Lady’s approaching fate. [1] The caption describes the candles being extinguished; the photograph shown here still has one visible flame. Follow those details across the picture: the candles are beside the bow, the hair spreads beside her shoulders, and the small birds are among the reeds.
The patterned fabric
The fabric draped over the boat’s side includes round panels containing small figures. In the enlarged detail, look for a building and a pale horse among the small figures. Tate’s online caption describes the Lady embroidering scenes of passers-by while she is confined to the tower. [1]
Reeds and reflections
Reeds beside the outstretched hand interrupt the boat’s outline, while reflections extend forms into the water below. The Waterhouse entry in The Art Book draws attention to the closely observed reeds and the reflections. [3] Compare the reeds beside the hand with the clearer stretch of water beneath the bow.
Follow the dark hull down to its reflection, then find the patches of open water beside it. The boat is easier to separate from the river at the bow than among the reeds near the outstretched hand. Use those two edges to compare open water with the crowded bank.
DIFFERENT SCENES
Compare the scenes from the Lady’s story
Terry Riggs’s 1998 Tate collection essay describes a different Waterhouse painting, made in 1894 and identified there with Leeds City Art Gallery, showing the moment she looks out of the window. [1] A familiar title can refer to different moments, so check the date and collection before comparing images.
The Art Gallery of Ontario records a painting by John William Waterhouse dated 1915 whose title quotes the Lady saying she is half sick of shadows and identifies its source as part II of the poem. Its object number is 71/18. [4] The words occur in part II, before Lancelot’s appearance in part III and the departure in part IV. [2]
The Tate painting was made earlier, in 1888, but depicts a later episode. [1][2][4] The order in which Waterhouse painted these works is different from the order of the events in the poem. Compare them by asking which episode each depicts, rather than treating another date as a replacement version of the same scene.
SUBJECT AND TECHNIQUE
Compare the reeds with Millais’s Ophelia
Chloe Portugeis compares the reeds in Waterhouse’s painting with those in Millais’s Ophelia, describing Millais’s reeds as retaining detail up close while Waterhouse’s dissolve into visible brushstrokes. The essay says that seeing the paintings in person makes the difference easier to discern. [5]
Comparison work: Sir John Everett Millais’s Ophelia, 1851-2, Tate, reference N01506. [6] View Tate’s record and image.
Portugeis reads the less tightly defined forms as evidence of Waterhouse’s engagement with French Impressionism. [5] The Art Book draws attention to the carefully depicted reeds. [3] The descriptions pull in different directions: painstaking depiction in The Art Book and visible dissolution in Portugeis’s close-view account.
Start with the reeds beside the Lady’s hand, then compare the corresponding plants in Ophelia in Portugeis’s illustrated essay.
THE OBJECT TODAY
Which collection owns this painting?
This painting belongs to Tate, which identifies it by reference N01543. Tate records its presentation by Sir Henry Tate in 1894. [1] Consult the current museum record for display information before visiting.
Common questions
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Is the chain broken?
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Was the model Waterhouse’s wife?
Tate’s 1998 collection text says the model is traditionally identified as Waterhouse’s wife. [1] That is a proposed identification, not a named sitting.
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Is the setting a known place?
Riggs’s 1998 collection text says the setting is unidentified. The essay’s discussion of visits to Somerset and Devon does not identify either as the location in the painting. [1]
Prints by John William Waterhouse are available. View the collection →
