A Mermaid

Waterhouse’s paintings often depicted figures from literature or Greek mythology. It’s possible that this work was inspired by Alfred Lord Tennyson's 1830 poem The Mermaid, which includes the lines:

Who would be
A mermaid fair,
Singing alone,
Combing her hair

And goes on to describe the mermaid seeking and finding love among the mermen:

Of the bold merry mermen under the sea.
They would sue me, and woo me, and flatter me,
In the purple twilights under the sea;
But the king of them all would carry me,
Woo me, and win me, and marry me.

However Waterhouse was also interested in the darker mythology of the mermaid as an enchantress. Mermaids traditionally were sirens who lured sailors to their death through their captivating song. They were also tragic figures, since they couldn’t survive in the yearned-for human world, and men could not exist in their watery realm, so any relationship was doomed. There are no sailors in Waterhouse's painting; despite being a siren, the mermaid is depicted as a rather lonely figure. Beside her is a shell filled with pearls, which some believed to be formed from the tears of dead sailors.