The Lady in this work displays the characteristically romantic attributes of long hair, a wistful, beseeching expression, and

a childlike innocence. Waterhouse shared many characteristics of the PRB, including an interest in poetry and romantic subjects, but he also differed from it in several important respects, one of which appears in his use of detail. In order to convey his interpretation of the story. Hunt filled his decorative Lady of Shalott with intricate details, the intensity of which, however, detracts the viewer's attention from the Lady herself. Waterhouse's painting, in contrast, involves the viewer with the Lady. The loom and the mirror, which he treats as accessories to the Lady, do not detract from her presence or her reality but enhance them. Although the Lady belongs to the world of legends, she has believability because she exists in a natural, realistically constructed space. The construction of this interior space based upon horizontal and vertical elements, such as the classical columns in the background and the frame of the loom in the foreground, lends the picture a sense of repose and tranquility. Waterhouse provides his Lady with a spacious atmosphere of light and color by placing her slightly back from the picture plane and by using the floor tiles to lead the viewer's eye back into space and into the view of the castle, the bridge, and the river in the mirror. This conception of space, entirely different from the restricted and crowded space of Rossetti's and Burne-Jones's work, converts the dream world of medieval legend into a believable reality. (Waterhouse)

Baldry counted him among the best of the romantic painters, saying, "He had in a very high degree the capacity to invest his paintings with the right atmosphere of poetic suggestion." Ladies of Shalott, pp. 17172 Baldry, A. L. "Some Recent Work by Mr. J. W. Waterhouse." Studio 4 (1894): 103-15.

Waterhouses third and final painting, produced in 1915, was titled I am Half Sick of Shadows said the Lady of Shalott. In this painting, Waterhouse elaborately illustrated the loom and focused on the Ladys gaze in the mirror, in which two young lovers are in the distance of Camelot (Figure 4). This depicts the passage: But in her web she still delights To weave the mirror's magic sights, For often thro' the silent nights A funeral, with plumes and lights And music, went to Camelot: Or when the moon was overhead, Came two young lovers lately wed: "I am half sick of shadows," said The Lady of Shalott41 Ashley Pratt 4/20/11 12

Figure 4: John William Waterhouse, "'I am Half Sick of Shadows' said the Lady of Shalott", 1915. Retrieved April 3, 2011, from: www.jwwaterhouse.com.

The rejection of the shadowy sphere of assigned femininity, demonstrated by the approved domestic activity of weaving, illustrates ostracism and social death.42 This is the moment when the Lady rejects complacently weaving all day, thereby remaining cut off from the opportunity that awaits just outside her window.