William Dyce (1806-1864)
At the
request of Prince Albert, Dyce painted 4 frescoes for Queene's Robing Room,
Westminister, to personify British virtues illustrated in Arthurian legend:
Religion, Generosity, Courtesy, Mercy.
Merci (1848) shows Lancelot on his horse
sparing the fallen Arthur.
The Pre-Raphaelites:
The
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (or PRB) was a 19th century group of rebellious
young artists who, disillusioned with the artistic climate of their day, sought
to rediscover the purity of art by creating an entirely new artistic style that
drew upon the middle ages, the bible, classical mythology and nature for
inspiration, emulating the work of the great Italian artists before Raphael
(hence their name: pre-Raphaelite). The PRB only lasted for five or so years,
but it served to inspire many other painters such as Lawrence Alma-Tadema and
John William Waterhouse throughout the rest of the 19th century and into the
early 20th century. (www.artmagick.com)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti(1828-1882)
Rossetti
organized the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
The Palace of Art (1854 drawing for the Moxon edition of Tennyson's Idylls
of the King)
*The Damsel of the Sanct Grail (1857)
King Arthur's Tomb (detail)
(1854 watercolor, only 9"x14", showing Lancelot and Guenever meeting
over Arthur's corpse)
How Sir Galahad, Sir Bors, and Sir Percival Were Fed
with the Grail, but Sir Percival's Sister Died by the Way (1864
watercolor)
William Morris
Guenevere or La Belle Iseult (1854)
Morris's only extant oil painting. He abandoned it and it was eventually
completed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown. The painting shows
Jane Burden (who was to marry Morris in 1859) in the guise of King Arthur's
consort. She stands before a crumpled bed that alludes to her adulterous love
affair with Sir Lancelot.
(www.artmagick.com)
Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898)
*The Beguiling of Merlin (Burne-Jones
painted 5 versions of Merlin and Nimue)
Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon
William Holman Hunt
Hunt
painted various studies of the Lady of Shalott tangled in her loom.
The Lady of Shalott
The Lady of Shalott (Engraving for the
Moxon edition of Tennyson's Idylls of the King 1856-57)
Sophie Anderson, French
(1823-1903)
Elaine, or the Lily Maid of Astolat (1870)
Arthur Hughes
(1823-1904)
Knight of the Sun
Sir Galahad
The Lady of Shalott
William Waterhouse
*The Lady of Shallot (1888)
One of
the few paintings of the boat segment of Elaine's story which shows her
alive. Waterhouse's sister Mary was the
model.
"I am half-sick of shadows," said the Lady of Shalott
The Lady of Shalott (1894)
Sidney Meteyard
(1868-1947)
"I am half-sick of shadows," said the Lady
of Shalott (1913)
Frank Cowper (1877-1958)
The Damsel of the Lake, Called Nimue the Enchantress
(1924)
Four Queens Find Lancelot Sleeping
La Belle Dame Sans Merci (1926
painting inspired by Keats' poem of the same name)
James Archer
The Death of Arthur (1823)
John Collier (1850-1934)
Guinivere's Maying
Sir Frank Dicksee
(1853-1928)
Le Belle Dame Sans Merci
Edmund Blair Leighton
(1853-1922)
The Accolade
A Lady's Favor or God Speed
Stitching the Standard
Briton Riviere
(1840-1920)
Elaine-`The Dead Steer'd by the Dumb Went Upward with
the Flood', from 'Malory's Morte d'Arthur'
John Spencer-Stanhope
Morgan le Fay
John Atkinson Grimshaw
(1854-1906)
Elaine
Illustrators:
Gustave Dore
(1832-1883)
Illustrated
4 poems for Tennyson's Idylls. Made 36 more drawings, which were
copied by engravers and later published all together.
The Finding of Arthur
Elaine Floats Down to Camelot on a Barge
Lancelot's Remorse
The King's Farewell
Aubrey Beardsley
(1872-1898)
Created
500 black & white drawings for J. M. Dent's Le Morte D'Arthur, published
1893-94. Art Nouveau style. Victorians were not enthusiastic about
his tendency to portray men as passive, androgynous, unheroic beings often
reclining, asleep, or naked, while his women and feys were more active.
*How Sir Bedivere Cast the Sword Excalibur into the
Water
How Four Queens Found Lancelot Sleeping
The Lady of the Lake Telleth Arthur of the Sword Excalibur
How Sir Lancelot Was Known by Dame Elaine
Julia Margaret Cameron
Tennyson
asked her to illustrate his Idylls. Her photographs used top & side lighting,
long exposure, and the wet collodion development process to create an
otherworldly aura of the magical past. Published in 1874.
The Corpse of Elaine in the Palace of King Arthur
Elaine in the Barge
Elaine the Lily Maid of Astalot
King Arthur
King Arthur Lying in a Barge
The Little Novice and the Queen
Vivien and Merlin
Vivien and Merlin
N. C. Wyeth
Illustrated Sidney Lanier's The Boy's King Arthur, 1917.
Inside Cover
And when they came
to the sword that the hand held, King Arthur took it up.
He rode his way
with the Queen unto Joyous Gard
Then the king ran
towards Sir Mordred, crying, "Traitor, now is thy death day come."
Then Sir Launcelot
saw her visage, but he wept not greatly, but sighed.
Good
web sites with bibliographies and many more images:
Artmagick's Pre-Raphaelite
Collection
Excellent
collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings with biographies of the artists and
discussions of some individual paintings.
http://www.artmagick.com
Carol Gerten's Art Gallery
Very
large gallery with alphabetical artist index. Outstanding quality.
http://sunsite.auc.dk/cgfa/
Camelot Project: Artist's
Menu
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cphome.stm
Celtic Twilight
Large collection,
easily accessible, with most images sized to fit inside screen
http://camelot.celtic-twilight.com/artists/index.htm
