Fairies in Victorian Art

The work of the great fairy painters is examined, Dadd, Paton, Fitzgerald and Richard Doyle, along with that of other Victorian painters such as Landseer, Fuseli, Millais, Rossetti and Rackham.

In an utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected. Charles DickensThe golden age of fairy painting lasted between 1840-1870 when fairies found expression in most of the Victorian arts - paintings, illustration, literature, theatre, ballet and music. The Victorians wanted desperately to believe in fairies because they represented a way to escape the intolerable reality of living in an unromantic, materialistic and scientific age. Fairy painting had a strong literary background. The books of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen perfected the Victorian consciousness. Shakespeare was an even more important source in particular with The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Another influence was the Victorian obsession with the supernatural, spiritualism and the unseen world.

Library Journal

At first glance, it would seem that the depiction of airies in art was a relatively minor aspect of Victorian culture. But this book demonstrates the diverse ways in which fairies could be expressed on canvas. These depictions permitted what is here described as an unromantic, materialistic, and scientific society to escape into the world of magic, ghosts, "spiritualism, and psychology." More to the point, they allowed repressed subjects such as nudity and eroticism to be dealt with in a socially acceptable manner. A skilled and prolific writer on Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian art, Wood examines the origins of fairy painting in the works of William Blake and discusses the influence of theater and literature, in particular Shakespeare's use of fairies in The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream. We are then given samples of work by the leading Victorian fairy painters and a discussion of lesser fairy painters and illustrators. Throughout, the prose is clear, to the point, and informative. The uniformly beautiful reproductions show the superb technical skill of the painters, and it is fascinating to see how they imagined this "other world." Recommended for any art library. Martin Chasin, Adult Inst., Bridgeport, CT Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.