La Belle Iseult
- Artist: William Morris
- Date: 1858
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 718 x 502 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “La Belle Iseult” by William Morris, an oil on canvas painted in 1858. It’s the only completed easel portrait that Morris ever produced, and it shows his wife, Jane Burden, in a medieval‑styled gown that echoes the Tudor‑style tapestries he designed for his own home at Red Lion Square. In the scene Jane has just risen from bed, a greyhound curled in the corner, rosemary sprigs in her coronet, and the word “DOLOURS” etched along the side of a mirror—elements that point to a mournful Iseult, grieving Tristram’s exile from King Mark’s court.
The colours are rich, the patterns tight, and the background panel echoes the heavy tapestries Morris created for his living rooms, with a table cover that matches the church furnishings he designed. Even though Morris was better known for illumination, embroidery, and woodcarving, you can feel his hand in every brushstroke as he wrestled for months with this portrait. The painting was bequeathed by Miss May Morris in 1939 and has been loaned to venues such as the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, but it currently sits in the historic early‑modern collection, inviting us to witness a rare, intimate glimpse into Morris’s world.
See it in person
La Belle Iseult is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
