A Fairy Tale

 (click to enlarge)

Arthur Wardle

(English, 1864-1949)

A Fairy Tale, 1895

Oil on canvas

This rather odd painting depicts a scene from The Bridal of Triermain by Sir Walter Scott:

All seem'd to sleep – the timid hare
On form, the stag upon his lair,
The eagle in her eyrie fair
               Between the earth and sky.
But what of pictured rich and rare
Could win De Vaux's eye-glance, where,
Deep slumbering in the fatal chair,
               He saw King Arthur's child!
Doubt, and anger, and dismay,
From her brow had pass'd away,
Forgot was that fell tourney-day,
               For, as she slept, she smiled:
It seem'd, that the repentant Seer
Her sleep of many a hundred year
               With gentle dreams beguiled.