La Belle Dame Sans Merci by Frank Dicksee

[Jody Gomez]

La Belle Dame Sans Merci by Frank Dicksee

[jenright]

Jody, thanks for posting this. I hadn't looked at in a while, and I enjoyed seeing it again.

As you probably know, there's a poem by Keats with the same name. It exists in a couple of versons. One is here.

http://www.bartleby.com/126/55.html

I have to admit I don't know if there's any direct connection between the poem and the painting, but they seem to go together to me.

John

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This image does not appear on my screen.

Kittennnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!

Michael

[Kat]

I believe it is fixed. It is showing up for me now anyway, whereas I had a little red X before. The image links to the article at the Art Renewal Center. It is a gorgeous painting. Does anyone know where it is. It says location unknown.

I found the poem by John Keats (1795–1821) from The Poetical Works of John Keats. 1884. Here it is...

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has wither’d from the lake,

And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms!

So haggard and so woe-begone?

The squirrel’s granary is full,

And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow

With anguish moist and fever dew,

And on thy cheeks a fading rose

Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads,

Full beautiful—a faery’s child,

Her hair was long, her foot was light,

And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,

And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;

She look’d at me as she did love,

And made sweet moan.

I set her on my pacing steed,

And nothing else saw all day long,

For sidelong would she bend, and sing

A faery’s song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,

And honey wild, and manna dew,

And sure in language strange she said—

“I love thee true.”

She took me to her elfin grot,

And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore,

And there I shut her wild wild eyes

With kisses four.

And there she lulled me asleep,

And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide!

The latest dream I ever dream’d

On the cold hill’s side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,

Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;

They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci

Hath thee in thrall!”

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,

With horrid warning gaped wide,

And I awoke and found me here,

On the cold hill’s side.

And this is why I sojourn here,

Alone and palely loitering,

Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake,

And no birds sing.

[Jody Gomez]

I'm glad you all like it. The poem is one of my favorites, and the painting took by breath the first time I saw it. At the time I did not know it was related to one of my favorite poems.

John-It was directly related to the poem, several of the pre-raphaelite painters ventured to express "la belle dame..." in paintings. Another of the more famous among them is this work by John William Waterhouse.

[Kat]

And here is yet another version. The Dicksee image is by far the most beautiful.

What is the story with this? Were they all inspired by the poem or is there more to it, maybe a legend or something?

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Walter Crane

(British, 1845-1915)

[Jody Gomez]

Kat-

The Pre-Raphaelites(my favorite group of painters by the way) often depicted scenes from the Romantic poets. The tale told in "La Belle Dame..." is an ancient one, but Keats made it uniquely his own, and expressed in verse a femme fatale never to be forgotten, and a knight "alone, and palely loitering." There are several other themes borrowed from the Romantic poets in the works of the Pre-Raphaelites. "The Lady of Shalot" is another from a poem by Tennyson with the same title.

[jenright]

Jody and Kat, thanks for all the additional information and images. I like the pre-Raphaelite painters, but I don't know them that well. Keats' poem is simply gorgeous, and is way up there on my list.

[Jody Gomez]

John-

It's wonderful to see another admirer of Keats. He is my favorite. I have an entire bookcase with his works, and works about him. Here is another example of a Pre-Raphaelite depiction of a piece of Romantic poetry. The Lady of Shalott, by John William Waterhouse; poem by Tennyson.

[Jody Gomez]

*dances a jig*-Just got my third $ symbol.

[Ellen Stuttle]

Jody,

Have you read the Hyperion and Endymion science fiction series by Dan Simmons? "Keats" has a significant role.

Keats is one of those greats the thought of whose precocity leaves me awestruck.

Ellen

___

[jenright]

Jody, speaking The Lady Of Shalott, in case you haven't heard it, there's a nice song version by Loreena McKennitt you might possibly enjoy. I must warn she left a few of the stanzas out in the recording we heard. -John

[Robert Jones]

Two questions:

1. Why were artists such as Waterhouse and Rosetti called PRE Raphaelites, when they came after him?

2. Has anyone ever heard Bernard Herrmann's incidental music to "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"? Is beyond beautiful!

[jenright]

Two questions:

1. Why were artists such as Waterhouse and Rosetti called PRE Raphaelites, when they came after him?

They had an idea that art had taken a wrong turn with Raphael.

Wikipedia: "They believed that the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting influence on academic teaching of art. Hence the name 'Pre-Raphaelite'."

If someone already answered this and it got lost in the hack attack, I apologize.

John