Titania Sleeping
1841, Oil on canvas
These were his paintings of scenes from Shakespeare's
A Midsummer Night's Dream. This scene depicts Titania lying in her
bower of thyme, oxlips, violets and woodbine. She is gently being lulled
to sleep by her attendants. This painting was displayed at the Royal Academy
of Art with the quotation, "There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull'd in the flowers with dances and delight," from Oberon's speech at
the end of Act II, Scene II.
This painting was painted in the early 1940s before
his descent into madness and his confinement in Bethlem Hospital. This
painting along with Puck were the paintings that he was most famous
for during his lifetime. This particular painting influenced his contemporaries
Huskisson and Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald's painting Fairies in a Bird's
Nest is very similar to this painting only it makes the nest out of
a more twiggy material and has Fitzgerald's own unique style of rendering
fairies. Dadd's most famous masterpieces Contradiction: Oberon and Titania
and The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke were not included in exhibits
during his lifetime.