Representations of Arthurian Legend in the 19th Century

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Representations of Arthurian Legend in the 19th
Century
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The Long Absence of Arthur16th - 18th Centuries

• Arthurian legend unpopular in 18th and early
  19th centuries
• Sexual misconduct of . . .
• Catholic overtones of Grail episodes

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Victoria and Albert
(1819-1901)
(1819-1861)
The Royal Collection Windsor.

• Prince Alberts tribute to Queen Victoria
• Frescoes for Queen's Royal Robing Room in
  Parliament
• Paintings from Arthurian Legend illustrating
  Christian virtues
• Commissioned William Dyce (1806-1864)
• Christian virtues from Malory?

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• 4 frescoes personify British virtues illustrated
  in Arthurian legend Religion, Generosity,
  Courtesy, Mercy. Merci (1848) shows Lancelot on
  his horse sparing the fallen Arthur.

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Tennysons Idylls of the King

• Tennyson made the legend acceptable to Victorian
  values
• Very Christian king ?Arthur Christ
• Arthur King Alfred
• How does Tennyson deal with morally reprehensible
  elements in Malory?

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The Moxon Tennyson

• Idylls of the King, 1857, published by Edward
  Moxon
• Started surge of book illustration in England
• 30 illustrations by the Pre-Raphaelites, and 24
  by men of the traditional Victorian school
• 18 by Millais, seven by Holman Hunt and five by
  Rossetti.

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Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

• Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
• Organized the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood to
  promote "genuine" artistic ideas, i.e., not
  conventions ordained by the Academy, to study art
  of the past, especially the Middle Ages and
  Renaissance before Raphael, and to study nature
  and pay attention to detail.

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The Moxon Tennyson, cont.
Rossettis Palace of Art
William Holman Hunts The Lady of Shalott
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
King Arthur's Tomb (detail) (1854
watercolor, only 9"x14", showing Lancelot and
Guenever meeting over Arthur's corpse)
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Rossetti, cont.

• The Damsel of the Sanct Grail (1857)

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Rossetti, cont.
How Sir Galahad, Sir Bors, and Sir Percival Were
Fed with the Grail, but Sir Percival's Sister
Died by the Way (1864 watercolor)
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William Morris (1834-1896)
Guenevere or La Belle Iseult 1854 (Morris'
wife-to-be was the model)
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EdwardBurne-Jones(1833-1898)
The Beguiling of Merlin (Burne-Jones
painted 5 versions of Merlin and Nimue)
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Burne-Jones, cont.

• The Dream of Sir Lancelot at the Chapel of the
  Holy Grail

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John Collier(1850-1954)

• Guiniveres Maying

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Frank Cowper(1877-1958)

• The Damsel of the Lake, Called Nimue the
  Enchantress (1924)

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Cowper, cont.
Four Queens Find Lancelot Sleeping

• La Belle Dame Sans Merci

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William Holman Hunt(1827-1910)

• The Lady of Shalott
• (1889-92)

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John WilliamWaterhouse(1874-1890)
I am Half Sick of Shadows Said the Lady of
Shalott c.1916
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Waterhouse, cont.

• The Lady of Shalott (1889-92)

The Lady of Shalott, 1888
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Waterhouse, cont.
The Lady of Shalott, 1894
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Sidney Meteyard (1868-1947)
"I am half-sick of shadows," said the Lady of
Shalott (1913)
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Edmund Blair Leighton (1853-1922)
Stitching the Standard (1911)
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Leighton, cont.

• Gods Speed or A Ladys Favor

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Leighton, cont.

• Accolade

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More Shalotts
Seymour Garstin Harvey (? - 1906)The Lady of
Shalott (Beneathe a Willow Left Afloat)
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More Shalotts, cont.

• Briton Riviere (1840-1920)
• Elaine-The Dead Steer'd by the Dumb Went Upward
  with the Flood

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More Shalotts, cont.

• Arthur Hughes (1823-1904)
• The Lady of Shalott 1872

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More Shalotts, cont.

• John Atkinson Grimshaw (1854-1906)
• Elaine

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More Shalotts, cont.

• Sophie Anderson (1823-1903)
• The Lady of Shalott

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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.
Finding Arthur
The King's Farewell
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Illustrators Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898)
Created 500 black white drawings for J. M.
Dent's Le Morte D'Arthur, 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 Lancelot Was Known by Dame Elaine.
How Sir Bedivere Cast the Sword Excalibur into
the Water
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Illustrators 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 Little Novice and the Queen
Vivien and Merlin
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Cameron, cont.

• Arthur

Wounded Arthur
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Illustrators N. C. Wyeth
Illustrated Sidney Lanier's The Boy's King
Arthur, 1917.
Inside Cover
Then Sir Launcelot saw her visage, but he wept
not greatly, but sighed.
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