The Knight's Shadow (by Edmund Blair Leighton) Canvas Print

This design features a painting by the English artist Edmund Blair Leighton (1852–1922). It shows a mediaeval knight in armour standing against the crenellated wall of a castle's ramparts. He is holding a helmet and has a long sword hanging down from his waist. He is a proud warrior. There is a noble lady with long red hair standing beside him, and she is painting the outline of his shadow against the wall with a paintbrush. Perhaps it is a way for her to remember him when he is fighting distant battles. Some critics have said that the painting is based upon the Greek myth of Debutades's daughter, a Corinthian girl who drew the portrait of her beloved on the wall of her bed-chamber by tracing the outline of his shadow cast by the lamp-light on the night before he departed for war, with the myth having been updated to the era of the European Middle Ages. The woman is wearing a long flowing white dress. It is an image of valorous heroism and intimate romance. The original artwork was painted by Edmund Blair Leighton circa 1909.