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Description: | A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by William Holman Hunt. The drawing shows a woman, the Lady of Shalott, with dark hair and wearing a long dress. She is standing in the midst of a loom with some weaving behind her; her right hand is raised and her face is averted. A large circular mirror behind her reflects her back, some railings, and a man on horseback, identified as Lancelot in the text below. Seven smaller mirrors surround the large one, some showing the woman in various scenes.
Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society:
"21.
WILLIAM HOLMAN HUNT
(b. 1827; d. 1910)
ILLUSTRATION TO TENNYSON'S 'THE LADY OF SHALOTT'
The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. From the Collection of Coventry Patmore (to whom it was given by the artist). 23.6 x 13.7 cm. (9 1/4 x 5 3/8 in.).
The Lady of Shalott stands with her web behind her, and the sunlight falling strongly upon her through a window which is reflected in a round mirror on the wall, and which shows a view of the stream and meadows outside and Lancelot riding along by the stream.
'Out flew the web and floated wide,
The mirror cracked from side to side.'
Early study for the subject, engraved on wood, in Moxon's edition of Tennyson's Poems, 1857, which the artist developed many years later in oil (1886). The design, as elaborated in the woodcut and only modified in detail in the later painting, differs greatly from this study, which is in the characteristic Pre-Raphaelite manner, simple and intense. The series of small magic mirrors encircling the central glass was not carried out.
L. B."
Technique: REPRODUCTION
Reproduction by the Vasari Society of a drawing by William Holman Hunt, Illustration to Tennyson's 'Lady of Shalott' (LC 1131/21). | Source: | Manchester City Galleries | Identifier: | mcag.emu.ecatalogue.105385 | Go to resource |
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