Focus on this artwork and explain the Theories.
An article in the Pre-Raphaelite Society journal, The Review,  has hypothesized that Waterhouse may have painted an image of his own face into The Magic Circle and that the image is only viewable at a specific required distance from the painting. The article also suggests that it may have been possible to achieve that distance by viewing the painting through reversed binoculars or opera glasses. An accompanying documentary, Inside the mystery of JW Waterhouse's The Magic Circle, presents the visual argument.A later PRS Review essay follows this by presenting evidence that the painting is directly inspired by Theocritus’s Second Idyll, more commonly known as “The Sorceress,” and in particular by CS Calverley’s 1866 translation of the Idylls. An accompanying blog piece 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.
Pre-Raphaelite