John William Waterhouse and The Lady of Shalott

'The Lady of Shalott' (1888) by John William Waterhouse; Tate Britain, London

I knew that the day that John William Waterhouse was born, 6 April 1849, was coming up (though the English Wikipedia page mentions 6 April as the day he was baptised), and had plenty of time to think about what painting to use for this post. I find so many of his paintings beautiful so it was a bit difficult. I say that of a lot of artists but when I say it's difficult with Waterhouse, then I mean Difficult with a capital D. I already loved his work before having seen an exhibition at the Groninger Museum in Groningen in 2009. It is one of the best oeuvre exhibitions I have ever seen in my life. I have to say that the museum had paid attention to detail. Even the marzipan layer on the cake in the museum's restaurant had the image of one of Waterhouse's paintings on it. Waterhouse was a Pre-Raphaelite painter and depicted mainly women from Greek mythology or Arthurian legend. For this post I chose 'The Lady of Shalott' (see another post on the Lady of Shalott by Holman Hunt). It is beautiful here on screen but in real life it is breathtaking. The colours and details are stunning and the moment depicted here is dramatic. It is the moment that the Lady of Shalott drifts in her boat to Camelot but dies before reaching it. For further reading, see the Tate site.