La Belle Dame Sans Merci (The Beautiful Lady without Pity)

During the course of research for paintings suitable for cross stitch patterns, I discovered that "La Belle Dame sans Merci" was a popular subject for the Pre-Raphaelite painters. It was depicted by Sir Frank Dicksee, Frank Cadogan Cowper, John William Waterhouse, Arthur Hughes, Walter Crane, and Henry Maynell Rheam.

What is this painting all about? La Belle Dame Sans Merci or The Beautiful Lady without Pity is a ballad written by the English poet John Keats in 1819. The ballad tells of a knight-at-arms who is doomed by a chance meeting in the meads with a beautiful lady. Enthralled by her sensual allure, he sets her upon his steed and spends the day bewitched by her enchanting company. He falls into a trance to be haunted by ghostly echoes of the lady's other victims and awakes from his magical slumber to find himself alone on a cold and barren hillside where no birds sing.

These are the different versions of La Belle Dame sans Merci in available at Pinoy Stitch cross stitch patterns:

Waterhouse's Version of La Belle Dame Sans Merci



Rheam's Version of La Belle Dame Sans Merci



Dicksee's Version of La Belle Dame Sans Merci



Cowper's Version of La Belle Dame Sans Merci