Miranda (Waterhouse painting)

Miranda
ArtistJohn William Waterhouse
Year1875
MediumOil on canvas
MovementRomanticism
Dimensions76 cm × 101.5 cm (30 in × 40.0 in)
ConditionVery good condition with minimal intervention in the past.
OwnerPrivate collection

Miranda by John William Waterhouse was painted in 1875 and depicts the character Miranda from William Shakespeare's The Tempest.[1] Waterhouse also painted Miranda later in his career, both in 1916. According to Sotheby's, the painting is currently in very good condition.[2]

Miranda was only Waterhouse's second exhibit at the Royal Academy, in 1875. It was seemingly lost for 131 years until it was found in 2004 in a private collection in Scotland, then auctioned by Bonhams on 4 November 2004. From 2009 to 2010, it went on an exhibition tour:[2][3][4]

The painting does not depict a scene from the play, but instead is an invention of Waterhouse, who depicts the fifteen-year-old Miranda seated on a rock at the seashore, watching a ship in the far distance. Despite the era the play was written in, Miranda is depicted wearing clothing from classical antiquity, a white chiton and tainia; her clothing and the scene evokes the mythical heroine Ariadne at the time when she was abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos. During Act I of The Tempest, Miranda will witness this ship, which carries her eventual lover Ferdinand, destroyed by the magic of her father, Prospero — this is the more popularly depicted scene, but Waterhouse chose to paint a pensive Miranda instead.[2][5]

In The Magazine of Art (1886), Blaikie compares Miranda to another of Waterhouse's works, Sleep and His Half-Brother Death, to both critique and compliment the artist:

There is no suggestion of the imaginative insight and exhaustive idealisation that are notable of the vision of Sleep and Death, though a satisfying potency of colour and a finely graduated brilliance of illumination give admirable force and relief to the figure.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Miranda (1875) by John William Waterhouse". www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com. Retrieved 2025-08-17.
  2. ^ a b c "(#12) John William Waterhouse, R.A., R.I." Sothebys.com. Retrieved 2025-08-17.
  3. ^ Prettejohn, Elizabeth; Trippi, Peter; Waterhouse, John William; Groninger Museum; Royal Academy of Arts; Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, eds. (2009). J. W. Waterhouse: the modern Pre-Raphaelite ; [on the occasion of the Exhibition "J. W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite", Groninger Museum, Groningen ... 14 December 2008 - 3 May 2009 ; Royal Academy of Arts, London, 27 June - 13 September 2009 ; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1 October 2009 - 7 February 2010] (1. publ ed.). London: Royal Academy of Arts. ISBN 978-90-8586-490-5.
  4. ^ "J.W. WATERHOUSE : THE MODERN PRE-RAPHAELITE". www.newexhibitions.com. Retrieved 2025-08-17.
  5. ^ "The Tempest: Entire Play". shakespeare.mit.edu. Retrieved 2025-08-17.
  6. ^ Blaikie, J.A. (1886). "J. W. Waterhouse, A.B.A." The Magazine of Art. 9. Cassell: 1–6. (page 3)
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