The Lady of Shalott became one of the artist’s best-known subjects, and he painted the character in two additional versions, The Lady of Shalott Looking at Lancelot(1894) and I am Half-Sick of Shadows, said the Lady of Shalott (1915). Waterhouse, who was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites in both style and subject matter, was also very fond of the poem. Tennyson’s poem was very popular among Pre-Raphaelite painters and poets, inspiring many works, such as The Lady of Shalott (1878) by John Atkinson Grimshaw, The Lady of Shalott (1857) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and The Lady of Shalott (1905) by William Holman Hunt. Candles were often used to symbolized life, and the two blown-out candles signify that her life will end soon. The artist hints at her near demise: in front of her is a crucifix and next to her are three candles, two of them blown-out. The tapestry she wove during her confinement is draped over the boat. Waterhouse depicts the Lady of Shalott in her final moments, as she lets go of the boat’s chain: her mouth is parted as she sings ‘her last song’.

Punished for breaking the curse, she dies before reaching her destination. Defying her curse, she looks out the window and heads in a small boat to Camelot. In Tennyson’s poem, the Lady of Shalott’s suffers from a curse that forbids her from leaving her tower: she sits in the tower and weaves, only allowed to look upon reality through a mirror. According to the legend, she was cursed in a tower near King Arthur’s Camelot. Tennyson’s poem retells a medieval Arthurian legend about Elaine of Astolat, who died of unrequited love for Sir Lancelot. The Lady of Shalott (1888), one of John William Waterhouse's best-known paintings, illustrates the tragic conclusion of Alfred Tennyson’s 1832 poem The Lady of Shallot.

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