Artist
Sir Edward Burne-Jones (Also known as: Edward Coley Burne-Jones)
(1833 - 1898)
British Pre-Raphaelite painter
Title
The Depths of the Sea
Date
1887
Medium
watercolor and gouache on wove paper mounted on panel
Dimensions
197 x 76 cm
Location
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US
Image size
400 × 842 pixels
File size
80.67 KB
Full size image
(550 × 1158 pixels, 164.74 KB)
A mermaid gazes at the viewer as she drags a young man to his death below the surface of the sea. Her expression is mysterious, perhaps challenging or victorious, but clearly she is unwilling to relinquish her prize.
In this image the mermaid could be interpreted as the personification of death by drowning, a sort of underwater version of the angel of death. She may also represent the femme fatale, the siren, the seductive power that women hold over men and the fear caused by that power.
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