The Tragic Romance Hidden in a 19th-Century Painting

How the devastating meaning of The Meeting on the Turret Stairs is unlocked by a medieval Danish ballad – and why the painting can only be viewed for two hours every week.

Forget Romeo and Juliet or Rose and Jack: Frederic William Burton's achingly beautiful depiction of Hellelil and Hildebrand's last moment together will stay with you forever. So say the painting's many new fans on social media, where it has been stratospherically popular. Though it dates back to the 19th Century, a surge of TikTok videos about viewing The Meeting on the Turret Stairs – both online and in real life – has gone viral, describing the painting as "a breathless moment" and "life changing". 

Painted in large, vivid swathes of red and blue, Burton's 1864 watercolour Hellelil and Hildebrand, The Meeting on the Turret Stairs boldly illustrates the couple's final tryst before Hildebrand's painful death. Here, the prince meets with the love of his life, Hellelil, for one last embrace before meeting his cruel fate – a demise orchestrated by her austere father.

It's a love story as old as time: a bodyguard falls in love with the princess he's protecting, but ultimately they cannot be together. While viewers might not be aware of the sorrowful end that awaits these two, the strong emotions in both of their faces leave you wondering what's going on. The painting was inspired by a medieval Danish ballad translated by Burton's friend Whitley Stokes in 1855, in which Hellelil recounts the story of her love before succumbing to her own tragic end (more on that later).

Burton (1816-1900) was born in Ireland and began his career as a painter of miniature portraits and ancient monuments. He then moved to London to make his living as a watercolour painter, and later became Director of the National Gallery. He was an admirer of the Pre-Raphaelite painters – a connection that is clear in his most famous painting.

Since its debut, The Meeting on the Turret Stairs has moved audiences with its unabashed depiction of love. George Eliot, famed novelist and a friend of Burton's at the time, commented on the painting, saying: "[It] might have been made the most vulgar thing in the world, [but] the artist has raised it to the highest pitch of refined emotion."

- Author: Ondine Jean-Baptiste, BBC

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