The Magic Circle (Waterhouse paintings)

{{Infobox artwork

| image_file=John William Waterhouse - Magic Circle.JPG

| backcolor=#FBF5DF

| image_size=250px

| title= The Magic Circle

| artist= John William Waterhouse

| year= 1886

| medium=Oil on canvas

| height_metric= 183

| width_metric= 127

| height_imperial=

| width_imperial =

| metric_unit=cm

| imperial_unit=in

| city= London

| museum= Tate Britain

}}

File:The magic circle, by John William Waterhouse.jpg

Image:Miranda - The Tempest JWW.jpg

File:John William Waterhouse - The Magic Circle (study).jpg

The Magic Circle is an 1886 oil painting in the Pre-Raphaelite style by John William Waterhouse. Two copies of the painting were produced. The two paintings and a study depict a witch or sorceress using a wand to draw a fiery magic circle on the Earth to create a ritual space for her ceremonial magic. As was common in the period, Waterhouse repeated his subject on a smaller scale, probably at the request of a collector.

History

The larger prime version of The Magic Circle was shown at the Royal Academy in 1886,{{cite web | url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/waterhouse-the-magic-circle-n01572 | title=John William Waterhouse The Magic Circle 1886 | publisher=tate.org.uk | access-date=10 June 2019}} the year after Waterhouse was elected an Associate member. Coming after Consulting the Oracle and St. Eulalia, this was Waterhouse's third exhibit with a supernatural theme in as many years.{{cite web|url=http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5210397|title=John William Waterhouse, R.A. (1848-1917)|author=Christie's|publisher=christies.com}} The painting was well received at its exhibition,{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} and was purchased for £650 the same year by the Tate Gallery, through the Chantrey Bequest.{{cite web|url=http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/pictures/magic-circle-1886|title=J. W. Waterhouse|publisher=johnwilliamwaterhouse.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091109040759/http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/pictures/magic-circle-1886|archive-date=9 November 2009}} The painting was extremely successful with the critics and public alike.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

The smaller 1886 version of The Magic Circle measures 88 cm (34.6 in) high and 60 cm (23.6 in) wide. A private collector holds it.[http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2013/british-irish-art-l13132/lot.13.esthl.html 2013 Sothebys sale] Waterhouse painted a c. 1886 study for The Magic Circle, 61.5 cm (24.2 in) high and 41.2 cm (16.2 in) wide, also held by a private collector.{{Cite web|url=https://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5210397|title=John William Waterhouse, R.A. (1848-1917), Study for The Magic Circle|website=christies.com|access-date=16 September 2020}} He initially sketched the composition in a sepia pen and ink version in 1880–1881.{{Cite web|url=https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Du8B9dwW0AAFiPa.jpg|title=Detail from JW Waterhouse Sketch for the Magic Circle|access-date=16 September 2020}}

The Magic Circle was on display at the National Gallery of Australia as part of the Love and Desire exhibition (December 2018 – April 2019).{{cite web |url=https://nga.gov.au/lovedesire/ |title=Love & Desire: Pre-Raphaelite Masterpieces from the Tate |website=nga.gov.au |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181206155522/https://nga.gov.au/lovedesire/ |archive-date=2018-12-06}}{{Cite web|url=https://issuu.com/nationalgalleryofaustralia/docs/artonview_96|title=Artonview 96|website=Issuu|date=March 2019 |access-date=16 September 2020}}

Description

In a style typical of Waterhouse, the main character is a lone female figure placed centrally on the canvas. The surrounding landscape is hazy, as though it is not quite real, and the background figures are only discernible on close inspection, deliberately ensuring the witch is the only image of importance.

Waterhouse paid careful attention to the angles employed in this work, balancing the circle the figure is drawing around herself by using a triangle – her straight arm, extended by the straight stick, held out at 25 degrees to her erect body. The determined face emphasises the witch's power, her exclusion of the ravens and frog – popular symbols representing magic – and her command over the smoke pillar. Instead of billowing outwards or being affected by the wind, it remains in a straight line. A live snake ouroboros loops around the woman's neck.

The Magic Circle is similar in composition to Waterhouse's later 1916 painting, Miranda – The Tempest, which also portrays a woman associated with magic. Miranda wears a dress similar to the witch in The Magic Circle, and her face can only be seen in profile. Unlike Frederick Sandys' portrayals of sorceresses, such as his 1864 Morgan le Fay and 1868 Medea, Waterhouse chose to make his witch's face intent and intriguing, as opposed to malevolent.

Themes

Miracles, magic, and the power of prophecy are common themes in Waterhouse's art. More specifically, the notion of woman as enchantress recurs in images such as Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses (1891, Oldham Art Gallery) and Hylas and the Nymphs (1896, Manchester City Art Gallery). His oeuvre also includes several Middle Eastern subjects, in which he drew on the work of contemporary artists such as J. F. Lewis (1805–1876) and Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912), rather than on experience. This is one of Waterhouse's earlier works and reflects his fascination with the exotic.

{{blockquote|The woman in this picture appears to be a witch or priestess endowed with magic powers, possibly the power of prophecy. Her dress and general appearance are highly eclectic and are derived from several sources: she has the swarthy complexion of a woman of Middle-Eastern origin; her hairstyle is like that of an early Anglo-Saxon; her dress is decorated with Persian or Greek warrior. She holds a crescent-shaped sickle in her left hand, linking her with the moon and Hecate. With the wand in her right hand, she draws a protective magic circle around her. Outside the circle, the landscape is bare and barren; a group of rooks or ravens and a frog – all symbols of evil associated with witchcraft – are excluded. But within its confines are flowers and the woman herself, objects of beauty. The picture's meaning is unclear, but its mystery and exoticism struck a chord with contemporary observers. When the picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1886, the critic for the Magazine of Art wrote, "Mr Waterhouse, in The Magic Circle, is still at his best – original in conception and pictorial in his results"|quoted in Hobson, p. 37}}

Theories

An article in the Pre-Raphaelite Society journal, The Review, has hypothesized that Waterhouse may have painted an image of his face into The Magic Circle and that the image is only viewable at a specific required distance from the painting. The article also suggests that it may have been possible to achieve that distance by viewing the painting through reversed binoculars or opera glasses.{{Cite web|url=http://www.pre-raphaelitesociety.org/store/p24/%27Review%27_Summer_2018_PDF.html|title='Review' Summer 2018 PDF|publisher=Pre-Raphaelite Society|access-date=16 September 2020}} An accompanying documentary, Inside the mystery of JW Waterhouse's The Magic Circle, presents the visual argument.{{Cite web|url=http://faceinsidethecircle.com|title=Inside the mystery of JW Waterhouse's The Magic Circle, Jennifer & Mark Williams: Web documentary|access-date=16 September 2020}}

A later PRS Review essay{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Mark and Jennifer |date=Summer 2023 |title=A Mirror of Poesy: New evidence for the inspiration behind John Waterhouse's The Magic Circle & Maurice Greiffenhagen's An Idyll: and the optical effect at the heart of Waterhouse's masterpiece |url=https://www.pre-raphaelitesociety.org/2021---present-index.html |journal=PRS Review |volume=XXXI |issue=2}} follows this by presenting evidence that the painting is directly inspired by Theocritus's Second Idyll, more commonly known as “The Sorceress,” and in particular by CS Calverley's 1866 translation of the Idylls. An accompanying blog piece{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Mark |date=19 June 2023 |title=The inspiration behind the magic circle |url=https://waterhouserevealed.com/2023/06/19/the-inspiration-behind-the-magic-circle/ |access-date=19 June 2023 |website=Waterhouserevealed.com}} presents a detailed argument including evidence that the "face" emerging from the landscape in the painting is that of "Delphis", the Sorceress's lover, whom she is attempting to summon.

In contemporary culture

Harry Furniss created several parodies of The Magic Circle, including one in Punch showing the actress Sarah Bernhardt tending a cauldron{{cite web|url= http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/assets/images/content/waterhouse/hi/jww-c5.jpg |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160804144523/http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/assets/images/content/waterhouse/hi/jww-c5.jpg |url-status= dead |archive-date= 2016-08-04 |title=No. 450. Sarah B. in a New Piece. A big spooney scene}} and another in an exhibition The Magic Circle, or There's Nothing like a Lather by Soap-and-Waterhouse.{{cite web |url=http://johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/articles/caricature-soap-and-waterhouse/ |title=Archived copy |website=johnwilliamwaterhouse.com |access-date=12 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118150849/http://johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/articles/caricature-soap-and-waterhouse/ |archive-date=18 November 2016 |url-status=dead}}

Popular culture

A reproduction of The Magic Circle is one of the paintings featured in The Great Hall at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches in the set dressing of the 2005 children's TV series, The New Worst Witch.

The Magic Circle was part of the Harry Potter: A History of Magic exhibition at the British Library in 2017.

Another reproduction of The Magic Circle is one of the paintings with an occult theme featuring in the set dressing of the 2018-2020 TV series, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.{{Cite web|url=https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/chilling-adventures-of-sabrina-netflix-real-witches-pagans-magic|title=Real witches and pagans break down Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina|first=Jennifer|last=Vineyard|date=17 November 2018|website=SYFY WIRE|access-date=16 September 2020|archive-date=15 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815030200/https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/chilling-adventures-of-sabrina-netflix-real-witches-pagans-magic|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Du34RubW4AEXaJ1.jpg:large|title=Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Season 1, Episode 3|access-date=16 September 2020}}

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline|The Magic Circle (John William Waterhouse)|The Magic Circle (John William Waterhouse)}}
[http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.net/ johnwilliamwaterhouse.net]
[http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/home/ John William Waterhouse (The Art and Life of JW Waterhouse)];
[http://www.jwwaterhouse.com John William Waterhouse (Comprehensive Painting Gallery)]
[http://www.artble.com/artists/john_william_waterhouse/more_information/style_and_technique John William Waterhouse Style and Technique]
[http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=583&page=1&sole=y&collab=y&attr=y&sort=default&tabview=worklist Waterhouse at Tate Britain]
[http://www.tendreams.org/waterhouse.htm Ten Dreams Galleries]
[http://www.all-art.org/neoclasscism/waterhouse1.html John William Waterhouse in the "History of Art"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127013705/http://www.all-art.org/neoclasscism/waterhouse1.html |date=27 November 2020 }}