• English
  • Русский
  • Cats and Arrt
  • Gallery
  • Shop
  • About this site
  • Contacts

The Lady of Shalott, floating to Cat-melot

Everybody remembers the sad story of the Lady of Shalott, how it was described by Lord Alfred Tennyson and painted by John William Waterhouse.
But nobody before new that Waterhouse painted a true version of his famous artwork, here it is:

The Lady of Shalott, floating to Cat-melot

John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott, floating to Cat-melot

The painting depicts the lady in the boat, with the fat ginger cat, sitting in front of her. The kitty’s face shows deep empathy for the doomed woman.
Meanwhile, the cat tries to catch a fish in the river,
thinking that a good portion of tasty food can definitely improve the situation. Shrimps should sauce the catch and save the starving lady. The young woman traces attentively the cat’s efforts of pulling that big fish from the river.

Just compare the true version to the commonly known one, to be found at the Tate Britain

John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott, from the Tate Gallery collection

John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott, from the Tate Gallery collection

This version has no hope! Unfortunately, the cat was painted over at the demand of conservative art critics, who complained that the cat image in the picture is just a mockery of the classic poem.

They were wrong: if they would be attentive reading the poem, they would notice that the lady’s problems began when “she left the web”, in which the woman, staying in her home, saw “the mirror’s magic sights”. Definitely, she worked at the computer, posting cat images at some page (how otherwise we could understand that she weaves in the web what she sees in the magic mirror? Evidently she sees a lot of kittens on her screen, everybody knows that the Internet is made of cats!). Now everything becomes clear: the lady saw so many cats online that she decided to adopt one IRL. So she left her room and took her boat for Cat-melot, but the way was so long and she forgot to take a dinner in a hurry while leaving, thus she died from starving, poor girl! But Waterhouse suggested a happy end to the story in the original version of his masterpiece: the lady is adopted by the fat ginger cat who saves her life by feeding her a fish. It is not a mockery, it is mercy!

We and you, we both know that hugging a warm fluffy cat and having a good dinner is the best medication for depression!

Thus speaks Zarathustra the Cat
 

BUY THIS ARTWORK as a CANVAS PRINT or as a POSTER

 

Comments

comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.



Categories

  • Masterrpieces Masterrpieces
    Grreat worrks, grreat arrtists. RReal aRRt.
  • Russian Classics Russian Classics
    We know these works by heart from Our childhood. Or do we just pretend We know?
  • Portrait Portrait
    We know their faces from childhood. What’s new?
  • Still Life Still Life
    Resumes of our postprandial meditations saved for Eternity
  • Moderrn Moderrn
    What art is really modern? Is modern art always contemporary? That is the question…
  • Meowvies Meowvies
    Famous movies improved by cats. We reenact human film stars and make it better
  • Classics Classics
    We studied the painting techniques used in these great works. We are so glad to see them again.
  • The burning issues of our days The burning issues of our days
    Cats in politics, cats in society. How We change everyday world
  • Arrrt CRISPticism Arrrt CRISPticism
    Studies in arrrt theory, trrrends in contemporary arrrt, exhibitions crrronicles

Highlights

Fat Cat Art book: the celebration of the Cat and Art

15 Oct 2020

"Meows in Museums!": Fat Cat Art comes to real life

30 Oct 2016

The Exhibition that shook the world

20 Jun 2014

Who we are

  • “Our life as Mews to the Great Artists We admire” by Zarathustra the Cat

Follow Us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on InstagramFollow Us on PinterestFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on Tumblr

Artists, museums, projects

Aivazovsky Cats and the City cinema Edgar Degas Edvard Munch Edward Hopper Grant Wood Hermitage Museum Hermitage Museum Hieronymus Bosch Jaques-Lois David Klimt Kunsthistorisches Museum Leonardo da Vinci Louvre Malevich MoMA Monet Musee d’Orsay National Gallery of Art Washington National Gallery of Denmark National London Gallery National London Gallery Peter Paul Rubens Prado Museum Prado Museum public art René Magritte Rijksmuseum Russian Museum Salvador Dali sculpture Tate Gallery The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art Tiziano Tretyakov Gallery Tretyakov Gallery Uffizi Gallery Van Gogh Museum Vatican Museum Velazquez Venetsianov Vincent van Gogh Willem Claesz Heda
© 2011- 2015 - Great Artists' Mews -FatCatArt.com
Site design