The title of the painting is a quotation from the last two lines in the fourth and final verse of the second part of Tennyson's poem: But in her web she still delights To weave the mirror’s magic sights, For often thro’ the silent nights A funeral, with plumes and lights And music, came from Camelot: Or when the moon was overhead Came two young lovers lately wed; 'I am half sick of shadows,' said The Lady of Shalott.

In the painting, the mirror reveals a bridge over a river leading to the walls and towers of Camelot; also visible nearby are a man and a woman, perhaps the "two young lovers lately wed" referred to in Tennyson's poem.

The frame of the loom and the geometric tiles of the floor lead the viewer into the room, where reds, yellows and blues echo the more vivid colours outside.

It was sold from the estate of the accountant John George Griffiths CVO at Hampton's in 1923 for 300 guineas, and passed through the hands of the art dealer Arthur de Casseres.

It was owned by Mr and Mrs Frederick Cowan, and inherited by their great-niece, the wife of Canadian engineer Philip Berney Jackson, who donated to the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1971.