Elaine fell in love with Sir Lancelot, one of King Arthur’s knights. He abandoned her in favour of Queen Guinevere; she died from unrequited love and here her faithful dumb servant is rowing her to King Arthur’s palace at Camelot. She is holding a lily, representing purity, and a letter expressing her undying love for Lancelot. The artist’s source was Tennyson’s ‘Idylls of the King’ of 1859 which popularised the Arthurian romances in Victorian England. Few women artists dared to paint grand history pictures as early as 1870 and it may have been in recognition of this unusual achievement that the Liverpool City Council selected this major work by a female artist for purchase at the first of their Autumn Exhibition. (http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/collections/paintings/19c/item-235379.aspx) This painting is based on a poem by Lord Tennyson. It tells the tale of Elaine, an innocent country girl who falls in love with Sir Lancelot. He abandons her in favour of Queen Guinevere and she dies from unrequited love. Anderson’s picture depicts a servant rowing Elaine’s body to King Arthur’s palace at Camelot. Anderson was born in Paris and studied there under the Russian artist Baron Charles de Steuben. Her art education was cut short when her family moved to America in 1848. From then on she was self-taught. In 1871 Liverpool held its first Autumn Exhibition. 'Elaine' was purchased for the town and became the first work by a female artist to enter the Walker Art Gallery collection. This remarkable acquisition indicates the forward-thinking attitude of the first purchase committee. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sophie_Anderson_-_Elaine_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)