The Lady of Shalott

This silk embroidery is reproduced from the painting “The Lady of Shalott”  by John William Waterhouse, an English painter, completed in 1888. The painting depicts a scene from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 1832 poem of the same name. The painting features a young woman, loosely based on the figure of Elaine of Astolat from medieval Arthurian legend, who yearned with an unrequited love for the knight Sir Lancelot, isolated under an undisclosed curse in a tower near King Arthur’s Camelot. The Lady of Shalott is confined to her quarters, under a curse that forbade her to go outside or even look directly out of a window; her only view of the world was through a mirror. She sat below the mirror and wove a tapestry of scenes she could see by the reflection. After defying the curse by looking out the window at Camelot, the Lady has made her way to a small boat. This is the moment that is pictured in Waterhouse’s painting, as the Lady is leaving to face her destiny. She is pictured sitting on the tapestry she has woven. The Lady has a lantern at the front of her boat and a crucifix is positioned near the bow. Next to the crucifix are three candles. Candles were a representation of life – two of the candles are already blown out, signifying that her death is soon to come. The painting has the precisely painted detail and bright colors associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. It is one of Waterhouse’s most famous works, which adopted much of the style of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, though Waterhouse was painting several decades after the Brotherhood split up during his early childhood. The painting is usually on display in Tate Britain, London, in room 1840. 

It is all hand embroidered with natural mulberry silk threads by embroidery artists from Su Embroidery Studio in Suzhou, China.

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