About this artwork

This is a compositional study for one of Paton's most popular paintings (NG 293), that illustrates an episode from Shakespeare's play 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. The fantastic nature of the subject has tended to diminish appreciation of Paton as a figurative artist in the classical tradition, and in particular as one of the few artists in mid-nineteenth century Britain still painting the nude figure. Numerous studies for the composition and groups of fairies exist, many of the later, according to family tradition being made from three dimensional models of the fairies.

Updated before 2020

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Sir Joseph Noel Paton

Sir Joseph Noel Paton