#human love

A Mermaid (1900), by J.W. Waterhouse

Ever after he we was elected as member of the Royal Academy of Arts, Waterhouse studied on a Diploma Work.  Sketches dating back to 1892, finally resulted in this work that was donated in 1901. The young woman’s desire of human love, the attention to her hair and the association with water can be traced all the way back to one of Waterhouse’s earliest paintings (Undine in 1872).

Mermaids were a very popular theme in English art after Hans Christian Andersen wrote his fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” in 1836.