John George Naish - Midsummer Night's Fairies

signed with the artist's monogram (lower right); inscribed Midsummer Night's Fairies/ Painted by John George Naish/.../ Royal
Crescent/ Notting Hill/ London on the reverse
oil on panel
14 by 18 in.
35.5 by 45.7 cm
14 x 18 inches

ESTIMATE 120,000 - 150,000 USD

London, British Institution, 1856, no. 306

Flying across a moonlit sky, a fairy with butterfly wings rides a moth while others frolic in flowers or rest on clouds as diaphanous as their gowns. Such scenes defined Naish's reputation in the 1850s as a painter of fairy and mythological subjects. Art historian Susan P. Casteras believes the image was derived from Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream; the riding figure of the impish Puck and his band of carefree sprites was a frequent source of inspiration for fairy painters. Yet, Naish imbues this subject with very Victorian imagery, notably in the flowers, geraniums and nasturtiums, unfamiliar to the Bard but widely recognized in contemporary gardens. The flowers are painted with intensely vivid, saturated colors contained within darkened lines that define shape and texture. This detail reflects Naish's kinship with John Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who prioritized the observation of nature---even in the tweaked, miniature scale of this painting. The work's small size actually allows for an expansive study of the subject, as if the viewer were peering through a microscope to examine the fairies' various costumes and anatomies. This was perfectly suited for the Victorian viewer; many believed in fairies as real-life specimens of minute perfection, and often went on "scientific expeditions" to find the creatures. Fairy paintings reinforced the lore that their ideal bodies were eternal and their home worlds un-changing; this was particularly comforting to those faced with the ever-quickening pace of modern life. Indeed, in appreciating the world of the fairy, the imagined becomes realistic, the supernatural, natural.