The Lady of Shalott by Elizabeth Siddal

The Lady of Shalott, 1853, by Elizabeth Siddal

"This is the 4th version of the Lady of Shalott, and the only one done by a woman. It's interesting to note what point in the story the artist chooses to depict. Here, Siddal shows her at the moment she looks out the window, echoing these lines by Tennyson:

"Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
'The curse is come upon me,' cried
The Lady of Shalott."

Still, some critics have noted that this is the one moment in the story and poem in which the lady is in control of her own destiny; others have remarked that while most Pre-Raphaelite paintings allow us to look at women, in this drawing it is the woman who is allowed to look at the world."