John William Waterhouse's "The Lady of Shalott"

Hello, ladies!

How are things in Florida today?  In NJ it is a lovely, sunny day and it’s finally starting to feel like spring.  However, because it’s spring, the deer that live in the woods behind my house have come out and eaten every single last one of my crocuses (which are very pretty purple flowers that are the first to bloom in the northeast every year).  So I am sad for my pretty flowers today, but happy that the deer had something tasty to eat.  I have tulips that are just starting to come up, but the deer always eat those before they even get the chance to make flowers.  The first few times it happened I was kind of sad about it, but now I just think it’s funny.  I like deer better than flowers anyway.

 

This time I picked a painting called “The Lady of Shalott”- it was painted in 1888 by John William Waterhouse.  He actually painted this painting three different times…a lot of painters do that, which I think is a little funny.  Once I’ve painted something once I usually don’t want to paint the same thing again, I want to paint something new!  Of course, all that practice is probably why these guys are world famous artists and I just paint in my basement.  :)

 

So let me tell you the story on this one…the Lady of Shalott was cursed, and couldn’t look directly at the world, but could only see things through a mirror, and this – of course – made her very sad.  One day she saw Sir Lancelot in her mirror (he’s from Camelot, with King Arthur – he’ll come up in school some day if he hasn’t already), and fell in love with him, causing her to look directly out at the world (ut-oh!) and the curse caused a great storm…this painting is her escaping, just ahead of the storm, out into the world to look for her love.

 

There’s a very famous poem by a poet named Tennyson, and the part that tells this bit of the story goes:

And down the river's dim expanse, Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance, With glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day, She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

I like that she was brave enough to go out into the world to follow her dream (the story doesn’t actually end well for her, but that’s something else entirely).  I like the candles in the boat, and that only one remains lit in the wind – that’s symbolizes of how dangerous her journey is.  I like how she’s finally looking out into the world…and I like her dress.  :)

 

Anyway, hope you are having a wonderful week - know that I love you both very much and think that you are awesome!

Hugs and kisses,

Auntie Paula