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The Dangers of Desire in a Provocative Painting
A woman caught between love and a curse
Paintings do their work with an alchemy of symbols and gestures, moods and colours.
With this image, it is perhaps the ambience that pulls you in first: russet tones create a plaintive feel, moderately distressed, so quiet as to be almost nameless.
Yet look closely and sounds and texture rise in volume. The woman in the boat holds a metal mooring chain; its chiming clink begins to sound as her grip loosens.
The ochre flakes of fallen leaves float on the surface of the lake on which the boat drifts. A breeze moves across the water, strong enough to lift the fox-coloured hair from the woman’s shoulder, yet gentle enough to leave a candle flame still lit.
The artist John William Waterhouse had at his disposal not only a flawless painting technique but also a superb capacity for visual storytelling. The Lady of Shalott, painted in 1888, shows how deft his talent was. For whilst its atmospheric quality seeps from the painting most readily, this is also an image that delivers a compelling story through its suggestive hints and details.
A curse of love
The themes of tragic womanhood held particular significance for Waterhouse. His female…
