Art of Love, Day 8: What is missing...

02/08/2012

2 Comments

 
Here is the eighth of sixteen of my favorite artworks depicting romantic love in its various forms.  I'll be adding one artwork a day to the blog until Valentine's Day!

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Picture
"I Am Half-Sick of Shadows", John W. Waterhouse
Picture
Click on the images to see a larger version
The young woman has just noticed something outside her tower that has distressed her, that has made her start to yearn for something she does not have.

Notice the differences in this study for "I Am Half-Sick of Shadows". There is one slight addition in the sketch that stresses what she feels is missing from her life.  Can you spot it?
 


Comments

Annette
02/10/2012 17:56

Well, I can't be sure, because I'm very new to this, but it seems the sketch shows two happy people looking outward on the world while the finished painting show two lovers preoccupied with each other. I would venture that the finished painting makes more explicit the her longing for love, not merely general contact with the world beyond her mirror.

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Luc
02/10/2012 19:34

Thanks for the perceptive comments, Annette. I like that you point out the difference between the couples. I can imagine Waterhouse thinking on paper, "The lovers should look happy!". Then in the final version he expresses htat by having them in a moment of intimate closeness--the kind of romantic interaction the Lady of Shalott yearns for.

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