The poem was loosely based on the Arthurian legend of Elaine of Astolat, though it differs from both the classic and the Italian version of it.

The 1842 version, which will also be used in this essay, can be found in attachment B. The poem can be found in its entirety in attachment A. Waterhouse based his painting on the poem ‘The lady of Shalott’ (1833) by Lord Alfred Tennyson, and the following part particularly belongs with the painting: All these things can also be found in his painting ‘The Lady of Shalott’ (1888), which can be seen below in figure 1. The woman often takes some sort of action which influences her fate. She is often depicted fragile, tragic, fatal or powerful, but with a mysterious aura. Almost all of Waterhouse’s paintings have a woman as the main subject. Waterhouse got his inspiration from the same place, and also painted a lot about Ancient Mythology. They often sought inspiration in British literature like Shakespeare and the stories about King Arthur, or poets like Keats and Tennyson. The Pre-Raphaelite painters wanted to paint like the artists before Raphael did. John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) was a British painter who worked in the Pre-Raphaelite style. But can older and more traditional ways of art also be considered as intermedial, and how? This will be examined in the case of John William Waterhouse's paining ‘The Lady of Shalott’ (1888). My main questions are: in what way is this a form of intermediality? How does the intermediality in the painting work? What is the effect of that in the painting? Background Intermediality is often considered as a modern form of art in which several forms of media or performance are brought together. This essay will examine what form of intermediality can be found here, how it works, and the effects it entails.

The painting ‘The Lady of Shalott’ (1888) by John William Waterhouse can be considered as a form of intermediality.

The lady of shalott 1842