"The Lady of Shallott". Oil on canvas, 1888, John William Waterhouse. (Click on image for enlargement)
In Victorian-era England there was a great resurgence of interest in the legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, which was felt as high as England's great poet laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson. His Idylls of the King are one of the indispensible tellings of the Matter of Britain (along with Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and T.H. White's The Once and Future King), and his earlier poem "The Lady of Shalott" is also one of his most famous works.
The fascination with Arthurian legend was also felt by the visual artists of the time, including Edmund Blair Leighton and John William Waterhouse (1849-1917). Biographical information on Waterhouse can be found here.
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