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Symbolist Mermaids

Symbolist mermaids are rarely simple folklore beings. In fin-de-siècle art, the mermaid becomes psychological. She may appear as dream, femme fatale, erotic danger, metamorphic hybrid, or melancholy shoreline apparition. Symbolist art matters to mermaid history because it relocates the sea-woman from public legend into the inner theatre of desire, dread, and imagination.