This painting is dramatic and embodies the grief that Miranda experiences as she watches King Alonso’s ship be destroyed by the seas of the tempest. We cannot see Miranda’s face, but her sorrow is clear from her body language in the painting. The background of the sea is dark and cold, representing perhaps Miranda’s numbness to her own pain and loss. The direction of the ship leads our eye to the destructive rocks that await them on the shore. John William Waterhouse was an English painter that created this portrayal of the shipwreck scene in 1916. This painting is in a similar style to others that followed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood’s style in this collection.
