Frank Dicksee: La Belle Dame Sans Merci
No damsel in distress for this mortal knight errant. Despite being armed with steel and chivalric ideals, he is defenceless in the presence of this faery woman, beguiled by her ethereal beauty. In Frank Dicksee's La Belle Dame sans Merci, inspired by Keats's poem of the same name, the beautiful lady enthrals the adoring young man but later abandons him to unrequited love. Rather than the tale's woeful end, though, Dicksee depicts the dramatic moment of enchantment in all its Pre-Raphaelite glory. And we, too, fall under her spell.
Description
No damsel in distress for this mortal knight errant. Despite being armed with steel and chivalric ideals, he is defenceless in the presence of this faery woman, beguiled by her ethereal beauty. In Frank Dicksee's La Belle Dame sans Merci, inspired by Keats's poem of the same name, the beautiful lady enthrals the adoring young man but later abandons him to unrequited love. Rather than the tale's woeful end, though, Dicksee depicts the dramatic moment of enchantment in all its Pre-Raphaelite glory. And we, too, fall under her spell.
