It's a Matter of Beauty

The Lady of Shalott, John William Waterhouse, 1888

I was studying this painting tonight as my British Lit class talked about Pre-Raphaelite poetry. I think it's pretty beautiful. The mix of the christian themes and the pagan themes, mixing of earthiness with heaven, mixing realism and legend. The bright colors and patterns, the sensuality as a rejection of Victorian prudishness. Looking back at Shakespeare, at Keats, at King Arthur, at the Bible because the painters world was filled with smoke stacks and gray horizons and the wish to avoid the realistic world though its full of realistic details. Beautiful.