Circé offrant une coupe à Ulysse
Magic Circle
The Crystal Ball
John William Waterhouse (6 avril 1849 - 10 février 1917) est un peintre britannique néoclassique et préraphaélite.
Artiste symboliste, il est célèbre pour ses tableaux de femmes inspirés de la mythologie et de la littérature, sorcières, enchanteresses, sirènes, nymphes et femmes fatales se prélassent sur les toiles savamment colorées de ce brillant artiste.
Waterhouse possède un grand sens de la composition servi par une superbe technique et une maîtrise parfaite des effets dramatiques (la Tempête, 1916).
Nous pouvons ainsi admirer certaines héroïnes shaekespeariennes, son oeuvre la plus connue reste "The Lady of Shalott", réalisée en 1888, basée sur la poésie de Tennyson, les poèmes de Keats sont également une source d'inspiration à l'élaboration de certaines toiles.
La Belle Dame sans merci
Original version of La Belle Dame Sans Merci, 1819 par Keats
Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.
I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful - a faery's child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery's song.
She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said -
'I love thee true'.
She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
And there she lulled me asleep
And there I dreamed - Ah! woe betide! -
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried - 'La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!'
I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill's side.
And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Il crée un style de beauté féminine hautaine qui lui assure une grande popularité (Danaïdes, 1904).
Lady of Shalott
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Jason et Médée
Une Naïade
Sacrifice sur l'Autel