Victorian fairytale painting

The origins of Fairy painting date back to the late 18th - early 19th centuries, to the so-called Gothic Renaissance in romanticism , in painting it includes the works of Johann Heinrich Füssli (1741-1825), his early deceased student Theodor von Holst (1810-1844), as well William Blake (1757-1827), filled with fantastic images and hallucinations ^{[3] [2]} .

Researchers identify a number of reasons for the appearance of Fairy painting . Among them ^[2] :

• The establishment of the rule of romanticism in English culture and its interest in the folklore of the British Isles. Collections of British fairy tales and legends appeared, were published in English in 1823 by the Grimm Brothers ' Children's and Household Tales. Fashion for fairy tales aroused the imagination of British writers: “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll (1865, the drawings of the writer in the text of his first manuscript of this book are of interest), “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde (1888) ... These collections and individual fairy tales provided artists a wide selection of subjects for Fairy painting ^[4] .
• According to art historian Jeremy Maas, Fairy painting is close to the Victorian subconscious: it contains a desire to escape from the monotony of everyday life; a new attitude towards sex, which is fettered by religious dogmas; subconscious aversion to photography. In this regard, Fairy painting is a rebellion against the present. Artists saw a way out in a return to the past - to the cozy rural life of antiquity ^[5] .
• The fantastic tradition of British literature (poetry by Edmund Spencer “The Fairy Queen” and Alexander Pope “The Rape of the Curl”), combined with innovations in theatrical technology - William Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night's Dream” and “The Storm” , now went on stage in gas lighting and electricity, which allowed us to develop unusual effects that inspired artists. In 1863, a performance with the participation of Ellen Terry presented the audience Titania riding a mechanical mushroom ^[2] .
• R. A. Schindler notes the need for the emerging middle class in new forms of art. He was not satisfied with the plots and techniques of academic painting. The middle class was drawn to simple folk fantasies - to fairy tales , he wanted to bring his origin to more ancient than the aristocracy , clans, maybe even to the royal surnames of the most ancient times, hence the interest in ancient myths and legends of Britain (like Anglo-Saxons , so and the Celts ). This genre also had a circle of enthusiastic admirers who were ready to spend big money on buying paintings and who could publish articles in reputable magazines: Queen Victoria , Charles Dickens , John Ruskin , Lewis Carroll ^[5] .
• T. Windling notes as a reason the rejection by the society of the industrial revolution . Pantheism , a craving for antiquity, for world harmony, for the unity of man and nature, were opposed to soulless industrial society , bourgeois progress ^[5] .
• Interest in spiritualism , characteristic of the Victorian era. A literary and philosophical mythological school arose, which explained the similarity of folklore to the general religious representations of the ancient peoples, the interest in its conclusions united many artists of "fairy tale painting" ^[4] .
• The reason is also believed to be the widespread use in the UK of this time of opiate drugs that generated fantastic images and visions. For some artists, it was an opportunity to put on their erotic fantasies and plots of their dreams in fairy tale form ^[2] .

Most Fairy painting artists painted paintings on the plots of the “fabulous” Shakespearean plays “A Midsummer Night's Dream” and “The Storm”, on folklore plots and plots of fairy tales. Initially, this direction was mainly associated with easel painting, later - with book graphics ^{[6] [7]} .

Fairy painting in easel painting

According to art historians, the first Victorian artist to create such works and to receive critical acclaim for his fabulous paintings was Richard Dudd (1817-1886). The painting “Sleeping Titania” was created by the artist in 1841 at the same time as another painting on the plot “A Midsummer Night's Dream” - “Pak”. Sleeping Titania has been repeatedly shown at exhibitions: 1841 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London (Summer Exhibition, exhibit No. 207, here the painting was widely successful and attracted the attention of Lord Thomas Phillips, who provided Dudd with funds for traveling to the Middle East and to Egypt ), in Manchester (Artistic Treasures of the United Kingdom, 1857, exhibit No. 477), in London . In August 1843, seeing in his father the incarnation of the devil, Dudd killed him with a knife (cutting his throat and killing him with a knife in the chest) and headed to Paris ; along the way he tried to kill another man, was captured in France by the police. Modern researchers suggest that he suffered from schizophrenia (apparently, he was genetically predisposed to it - all his brothers became victims of mental disorder), or from bipolar disorder . Dadd was placed in Bedlam Psychiatric Clinic, and in 1864 he was transferred to Broadmoor . In the hospitals, Dadd continued to paint, created miniature, carefully written out, fantastic for the plot, atmosphere and color of the canvas “Dispute: Oberon and Titania” (1854-1858), “Masterful swing of a fairytale lumberjack” (1855-1864) ^[8] .

Among the most famous artists in this direction: Joseph Noel Paton , Daniel Macleese , John Anster Fitzgerald . The paintings of John Anster Fitzgerald have a sinister and tragic character. Art historians attribute this to the Irish folk tradition of depicting magical characters as evil rather than good, as well as the effects of drugs that the artist probably used. Some of his paintings - “The Mystic of Dreams” ( Eng. The stuff Dreams are Made , 1858), “Captive Dreamer” ( Eng. The Captive Dreamer , 1856), suggest an acquaintance with opium and laudanum . In these paintings, goblin-like figures appear, carrying transparent glasses with a mysterious drink and bottles, in which laudanum was sold in pharmacies in the Victorian era. The artist owns a cycle about the mysterious creatures of the fairy world, in particular about the conflict between the fairy world and Robin (in Russian it is sometimes translated as Robin’s own name, in English it is a symbol of Christmas from the middle of the 19th century): “Robin protecting its nest”, "Captured Robin", and especially - "Who killed Robin?" ( Eng. Who killed Cock Robin? ), " Fairy's Funeral " ( Eng. The Fairy's Funeral , 1864), "Fairy Ship" ( Eng. The Fairies Barque , 1860 ) Art historians note carefully written birds, flowers and insects, which are opposed by carelessly sketched figures of humanoid fairy-tale characters ^[9] .

John Simmons portrayed nudity (most often Titania), which he included in a fantastic landscape that served as a decorative frame; critics unanimously noted the deliberate eroticism of his paintings ^[10] . Most of Simmons’s paintings are simple in composition and usually depict one or two figures framed by foliage, fancy flowers or bindweed thickets. Bonhams auction catalog claims the artist portrays “The Fairy Queen as a standard for Victorian female beauty.” The artist erases the boundaries between reality and dreams, he creates a poetic vision of Shakespeare's play. The catalog cites Charlotte Gere, who notes the parallels of Simmens' creativity with Orientalism and its complex relationship with the voyeur viewer ^[11] . Simmons’s paintings on fairy tales give a surreal effect from the skillful use of light and realistic details, which he uses to depict animals and plants ^[12] .

Pre-Raphaelites created separate works in the fairy tale genre: John Everett Millet (Ferdinand Enchanted by Ariel), Arthur Hughes , William Bell Scott . Some works of John Atkinson Grimshaw and Joseph William Turner are close to this direction ^[13] .

Some artists, such as Marc Lancelot Simons , continued to work in this area later on. Mark Lancelot Simons 's A Fairy Tale is based on an episode from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The picture, however, does not depict a fairy queen surrounded by her close associates, as it should follow from the plot, but small naked children in a forest among flowers playing with each other, unaware of the danger that threatens them and the events that they still have to go through , and a girl sleeping among them. Simons was deeply religious, his interest in fairy-tale themes and the world of fairies was combined with his broad public religious activity, he was a member of the voluntary international association of the Roman Catholic Church Catholic Evidence Guild , acted as its representative at the disputes in Hyde Park in London ^{[14] [15]} .

Fairytale Painting in Victorian Book Graphics

Towards the end of the Victorian era, fairy-tale painting changed its sphere of existence, moving from easel painting to book graphics, artists of Arthur Rackham (“Pak from the Pook Hills” by Rudyard Kipling ; collaboration of Rackham and James Matthew Barry “Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens”) usually refer to such examples. " , 1867-1939), Edmund Dulac (1882-1953), Henry Justice Ford (1860-1941) ^[6] .

The most striking example of such graphics, some art historians consider the work of Louis William Wayne (1860-1939). His specific passion for anthropomorphic cats contributed to the tragic events of his personal life. His young wife got cancer and was bedridden, the family was experiencing serious financial problems. The only consolation in her was a kitten, whom the artist taught to wear glasses, sit in front of a book, pretending to read. It was the dying spouse who convinced her husband to provide drawings for publication. The cats in the drawings wear human clothes, smile broadly and use human facial expressions, play music, play cards , smoke, sunbathe on the beach . The artist wrote: “I ... just paint people in their usual poses, like cats, giving them the most humane features. This gives my work a dual nature, and I consider them my best jokes ” ^[16] . The artist, who was always considered the original, showed a mental disorder, it progressed rapidly, Wayne began to suffer from hallucinations . The artist spent the last years of his life in a psychiatric hospital. Cats in his last works lose anthropomorphic features and turn into abstract patterns ^[17] .

The first editions of Lewis Carroll's tales were illustrated by artist John Tenniel . Work on illustrations for Carroll’s books took place in the artist’s ongoing debate with the writer. For example, the image of the White Knight (chess horse), which Carroll considered his alter ego , eventually turned into a stylized self-portrait of Tenniel himself. Lion and Unicorn are cartoons of the then-famous politicians, Prime Minister Conservative Benjamin Disraeli and leader of the liberal party, William Gladstone . Contemporaries took illustrations with bewilderment. One of them wrote: “Mr. Tenniel’s illustrations are rude, gloomy, clumsy, despite the fact that the artist is extremely inventive and, as always, almost magnificent” ^{[18] [19]} .

Arthur Rackham is an English artist who has illustrated almost all of the classic children's literature in English ( Wind in the Willows , Alice in Wonderland , Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens ), and Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream . He repeatedly won gold medals at world exhibitions . In 1914, his personal exhibition was held in the Louvre . Rackham was primarily a brilliant draftsman, preferring fancifully wriggling lines. His world is inhabited by bizarre creatures such as gnomes , elves and fairies , some of which can be traced to a portrait resemblance to the author. Colors are softened and play a subordinate role ^[20]

Cartoonist and illustrator Thomas Maybank actively worked on fairy-tale images between 1898 and 1912 in easel painting, later he switched to book graphics and created illustrations for William Shakespeare's play “A Midsummer Night's Dream” ^[21] . Of particular popularity was the publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, published in 1907 and illustrated by the artist ^[22] . He also created illustrations for the poem by Michael Drayton (1563-1631) "Nymphidia, or the court of fairies" (1627, English. "Nymphidia, the Court of Fairy" ) ^[23] .

The book graphics of Frederick Cayley Robinson are inspired by the images of Maurice Meterlink (with whom he was personally acquainted), the work of the Pre-Raphaelites and examples of French symbolism , but continues the traditions of Victorian fairy-tale painting ^[24] .

The interest in fantastic art and literature since the 70s of the XX century has caused a revival of the fabulous theme in painting, often in new contexts. Authors of works inspired by Victorian fairytale painting usually include: Stephanie Pui-Moon Lo , Brian Froud , whose work formed the basis of the films "Dark Crystal" and "Labyrinth . " Passion for images of elves and fairies encompassed samples of clothing, ceramics , sculpture, and needlework. Sometimes, the growing popularity of Fairy painting is correlated with the development of the New Age movement ^[25] .

Art history works came out: in 1997 by Jeremy Maas (1997) “Victorian Fairy Painting” ^[26] in 2000 - Pamela White Trimp and Charlotte Gere “Victorian Fairy Painting” ^[27] , in the same 2000 - Christopher Wood “Fairies in Victorian painting ” ^[28] . Themed exhibitions were held. One of the largest was in 1998-1999, "Victorian Fairy Painting" in the halls of The Frick Collection , USA ^[29] .

• Tales of Alice Lewis Carroll in a Book Illustration

• Kiryukhina E. M. Evolution of Victorian fairy-tale painting: from Richard Dadd to Beatrix Potter // Bulletin of the Nizhny Novgorod University. N. I. Lobachevsky: Journal. - 2012. - No. 3 (1) . - S. 410-416 .
• Mikhaylina O. Yu. Fairytale genre in English literature and painting // Culture of the Black Sea Peoples: Collection. - 2004. - T. 2 , No. 56 . - S. 111-116 . Archived on January 9, 2017.
• Allderidge, Patricia. The Late Richard Dadd, 1817-1886. - Tate Gallery, 1974. - ISBN 978-0-900874-79-6 .
• Fairy Painting (Neopr.) . Tate Glossary Tate Collection. Date of treatment January 5, 2017.
• Maas, Jeremy. Victorian Fairy Painting. - Merrell Holberton, 1997. - ISBN 978-0-900946-58-5 .