Last week, I posted about reading the classic fairy tale Undine, in which a water spirit marries a human in order to gain a soul. If you seek the enchantments of water-women, then a dose of Burne-Jones is in order:
The Sea-Nymph:
One of the most haunting images I’ve ever seen, The Depths of the Sea:
The Mermaid:
Mermaids in the Deep:
A Mermaid and her Offspring:
Although I love the depictions of mermaid by Burne-Jones. I must admit that my favorite sea maiden paintings are by Waterhouse:
A Mermaid:
The Siren:
Recently, my children and I watched the movie Miranda (1948). It’s an adorable little movie, starring Glynis Johns as a mermaid. Johns looks so gorgeous as a mermaid, I just had to include an image of her here:
If you have any favorite Mermaid or Siren-themed movies, I’d love to hear your recommendations. We love to gather together movies of a similar theme and create our own movie marathons (Netflix is great for that).
Also, thank you for such positive feedback regarding the Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood T-Shirt. I have shipped several this week and you should receive them soon!
I hadn’t see Burne-Jones depictions of mermaids before, thank you for posting these wonderful paintings. I have to agree Waterhouse’s Mermaid is also my favourite to, and the film Miranda is lovely, didn’t recall the mermaid baby – a cute edition.
I remember a film I watched a few years ago about a Selkie – the film is called The Secret of Roan Inish, filmed in Ireland – more info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_of_Roan_Inish
H
x
I loved Ondine with Colin Farrell – a good modern interpretation. Gorgeous images in your post.
I recently visited a small church in Cambridge, St Peter’s and it has an 11th century font with Mermen! Each Mermen holds the ends of his split tail up to form a symmetrical design! Fascinating thinking about Mermen and not Mermaids!
Lisa, I still haven’t seen it. I really should, it sounds wonderful.
Louise, that is fascinating, mermen on a church is so unusual. I would love to see that, you don’t happen to have any pictures, so you? I would love to know the history of that church…
Well my favorite mermaid is a very modern one who appears in the film Local Hero. She is just as enchanting as any of the more traditional depictions.
The movie Undine is well worth watching. It’s on Netflix streaming.
Great theme, wonderful artwork.
How do they have babies? (just asking!)
Love it! I love that mermaids was such a popular subject in Pre-Raphaelite paintings. I did a similar post a while ago on my blog, if anyone is on the lookout for more mermaid delights! (http://allaroundartsy.blogspot.com/2011/09/sea-nymph-sunday-and-mermaid-monday.html)
I’ve always loved Waterhouse too. Have you seen this painting by contemporary artist
L. A. Williams? http://www.skinit.com/images/web/jumbo_shot/jumbo_shot13511026/la-williams-the-calling.jpg
It’s just beautiful and very Waterhouse-esque
No, I had not seen that before! I love her tail, both the shape and the shade of green. Gorgeous.
I recently wrote a post about the beautiful and haunting movie Rusalochka (a soviet version of The Little Mermaid with a quite different plot). Exquisite costumes, beautiful actors, poetic wintry washed-out lights…
I include my favourite screenshots (including pre raphaelite-looking ones) and link to the full movie here: http://labeautecachee.xanga.com/759689795/rusalochka/
I’d be really happy if you’d read and comment!
Gorgeous. I’m a big mermaid fan. And preraphaelite is my favorite depictions of them. … this a bit suspicious, however. How come we have to leave our email in order to comment now? 😉
I’m sorry if you find it suspicious. It is not new however, since starting this blog in 2007 I have had my discussion settings include the email field. It reduces spam and inappropriate anonymous comments.
The best mermaid I have seen so far is Splash with Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks. There are various reasons being: she is the first mermaid I saw with a non-green tail, her tail is simply perfect! and it’s a great achievement of prosthetics and costume when considering it was not one applied digitally. Daryl is just the perfect interpretation; she outdid herself in her role as Madison. Tom Hanks was nothing less of a complimentary character as Allen.
On Stranger Tides is quite enjoyable as a mermaid movie; it gives like 60% importance to mermaids, and the scenes are very nice. As one would imagine anything is achievable when using digital CGI, but still they have nice tails.
As a mega-fan of mermaids, I even watch the crappy movies out of curious interest…
But above all, I am more than sure that all you mermaid lovers are certainly expecting the upcoming The Little Mermaid movie starring Chloë Grace Moretz in the title role. A very important point I wish to clear out, she will NOT be portraying Ariel, the beautiful red-head is just the Disney version. Moretz will be portraying the original 1836 story character created by H.C.Andersen.