LaBelle Dame Sana Merci
Sir Frank Bernard Dicksee (1853-1928)
City of Bristol City Museum Art Gallery, UL
From a poem by Keats: In this poem, the poet finds a dying knight and listens to his sorrowful tale. The knight says that he met a beautiful, wild woman in the wilderness. As they lay together, she sang a strange song and he drifted into a frightening dream of pale, ghostly warriors -- the woman's slaves. Now he too is enslaved and, like those before, she has left him to die in sorrow.
Poor AR...He should've kept that cod piece firmly in place.
Dicksee specialized in fairytale paintings. His romantic art was wildly popular during the turn-of-the-century. He was even knighted. But, time passed and when Dicksee spoke against modern art the critics turned against him, scorning his art as old-fashion. It was decades before public taste changed.
Now, we again enjoy his lush, idealized paintings.
Click to see the real LaBelle Dame Sans Merci
Click image above to go to the next page, or choose a thumbnail below
to go directly to that FAMOUS ARt.
to go directly to that FAMOUS ARt.
(I always give permission, but it's still nice to ask first)