The larger prime version of The Magic Circle was shown at the Royal Academy in 1886,[1] the year after Waterhouse was elected an Associate member.

The surrounding landscape is hazy, as though it is not quite real, and the background figures are only discernible on close inspection, deliberately ensuring the witch is the only image of importance.

The determined face emphasises the witch's power, her exclusion of the ravens and frog – popular symbols representing magic – and her command over the smoke pillar.

Unlike Frederick Sandys' portrayals of sorceresses, such as his 1864 Morgan le Fay and 1868 Medea, Waterhouse chose to make his witch's face intent and intriguing, as opposed to malevolent.

Outside the circle, the landscape is bare and barren; a group of rooks or ravens and a frog – all symbols of evil associated with witchcraft – are excluded.

When the picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1886, the critic for the Magazine of Art wrote, "Mr Waterhouse, in The Magic Circle, is still at his best – original in conception and pictorial in his results"An article in the Pre-Raphaelite Society journal, The Review, has hypothesized that Waterhouse may have painted an image of his face into The Magic Circle and that the image is only viewable at a specific required distance from the painting.

An accompanying blog piece[12] presents a detailed argument including evidence that the "face" emerging from the landscape in the painting is that of "Delphis", the Sorceress's lover, whom she is attempting to summon.

Another reproduction of The Magic Circle is one of the paintings with an occult theme featuring in the set dressing of the 2018-2020 TV series, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.