Happy Birthday, Grace! (Ned Likes Mermaids)

I drew this picture for the lovely and talented Grace Nuth for her birthday several months ago.
(Go here for this wonderful interview with Grace about Pre-Raphaelite mermaids!)  It is no secret that she is especially fond of our Nedster and of his own special fondness for mermaids. Ned may have developed a taste for aquatic ladies due to his move later in life to the seaside village of Rottingdean (also home to Ned's nephew Rudyard Kipling).  No, I've never been there but there is great Google reference of its cliffs, which I tried to show in the above drawing.

Perhaps Edward Burne-Jones is associated most with his angels (yes, it is getting to be that time of year when you will see a plethora of Burne-Jonesian angel greeting cards everywhere), but it is his mermaids which proved to be his most haunting obsession.

First of all, everything that needs to be said about  Burne-Jones and his mermaids was expressed to perfection in this wonderful post from Kirsty Stonell Walker. I can't add more.

Except for showing you some of Ned's mermaid art, right here:

Ned seemed very fond of mer-families...

 But more treacherous mermaids seemed to be on his mind as well, as shown in this small painting:

Hurling a fish at her isn't going to work, buddy.

And this is probably his most famous mermaid image
of all, as well as one of his most famous paintings:
The Depths of the Sea.

Or better known as a t-shirt called "Mermaid Hugging Man". We'll let Grace explain...


Coming up next: Wombat Friday and why everyone needs to celebrate it.