Fairy painting
Encyclopedia
Fairy painting is a genre of painting
and illustration
featuring fairies and fairy tale
settings, often with extreme attention to detail. The genre is most closely associated with the Victorian era
in Great Britain
, but has experienced a contemporary revival. Moreover, fairy painting was also seen as escapism
for Victorians.
Despite its whimsical appearance, fairy painting is strongly rooted in the literary and theatrical influences of Romanticism
, as well as in the cultural issues facing the Victorian era. Among the most significant of these influences were the fantasy themes of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
and The Tempest
. Other literary works, such as Edmund Spenser
's The Faerie Queene
and Alexander Pope
's mock-heroic
The Rape of the Lock
have been cited as contributing influences as well. Innovations in stage production helped bring these works to the public eye, as the development of gaslight
and improvements in wire-work led to increasingly elaborate special effects. Although once described by Douglas Jerrold as "a fairy creation that could only be acted by fairies", productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream became more common, eventually leading to an 1863 spectacle featuring Ellen Terry
as Titania astride a mechanical mushroom.
Cultural changes were also an important factor during this period. Continuing industrialization
was uprooting longstanding traditions, and rapid advances in science and technology, especially the invention of photography
, left some people discomforted and confused. According to Jeremy Maas, the turn to mythological and fantasy elements, and in particular to the fairy's world, allowed an escape from these demands. "No other type of painting concentrates so many of the opposing elements of the Victorian psyche: the desire to escape the drear hardships of daily existence; the stirrings of new attitudes toward sex, stifled by religious dogma; a passion for the unseen; the birth of psychoanalysis; the latent revulsion against the exactitude of the new invention of photography." The significance of fairy paintings as a reaction to cultural change is not universally accepted, however. "Ultimately," Andrew Stuttaford wrote, "these paintings were just about fun."
The earliest artists considered to have contributed to the genre predate much of Romanticism and the Victorian era. Henry Fuseli
and William Blake
produced works that would be indicative of the later genre even before 1800. However, the artist most closely associated with fairy painting was outsider artist Richard Dadd
, a suspected schizophrenic who produced most of his work while incarcerated in the Bethlem
psychiatric hospital
for the murder of his father. Despite his status and condition, his fantastic subjects and extraordinarily detailed style were generally well-received, with one period reviewer describing his work as "exquisitely ideal". He accompanied his masterpiece, The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke
, with an elaborate poem providing historical, literary, or mythological context to each of the characters depicted.
Fairy painting was not exclusively the domain of outside art, however. The work of John Anster Fitzgerald
debuted at London's Royal Academy
. His work, in the form a series of Christmas-themed fairy illustrations, received wider public visibility in the Illustrated London News
. The Scottish artist Joseph Noel Paton
exhibited two immensely detailed paintings based on the popular fairy scenes of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Even Edwin Landseer, sometimes named "Victoria
's favourite artist", produced a painting of Titania and Bottom
in the genre's style.
The genre also influenced the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
and the movement it began. Co-founder John Everett Millais
produced a series of fairy paintings based on The Tempest, ending with his 1849 work Ferdinand Lured by Ariel
. Dante Gabriel Rossetti
, another of the Brotherhood's initial members, took a more sensual approach to the subject, in both painting and poetry. Others involved with the movement, such as Arthur Hughes
and William Bell Scott
, also contributed to the genre.
Although the Cottingley Fairies
briefly revived interest in fae subjects, the waning of Romanticism and the advent of World War I
reduced interest in the styles and topics popular during the Victorian era. The illustrated fairy-tale books of Arthur Rackham
are considered its "final flowering".
art and literature
since the 1970s has seen a revival in the topics and styles of Victorian fairy painting, often in novel contexts. While artists such as Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
have produced genre illustrations for book covers and role-playing games, the works of Brian Froud
, also known for a series of illustrated fairy books, have been adapted into several successful motion pictures including The Dark Crystal
and Labyrinth
. A 2003 book, The Art of Faery, written by David Riche and mentored by Froud, contributed to the careers of twenty fairy artists of this revival movement, including Amy Brown
, Myrea Pettit
, Jasmine Becket-Griffith
, Philippe Fernandez, James Browne, and Jessica Galbreth, many of whom went on to author individual art books. Depictions of fae have made their way into the popular culture in other ways as well, including clothing designs, ceramics, figurines, needlecraft, figurative art, quilting, many marketed through Hot Topic
to an international market online. Renaissance fair
s and science fiction conventions have also developed modern fairy art as a genre of collectibles.
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
featuring fairies and fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
settings, often with extreme attention to detail. The genre is most closely associated with the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
in Great Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
, but has experienced a contemporary revival. Moreover, fairy painting was also seen as escapism
Escapism
Escapism is mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an "escape" from the perceived unpleasant or banal aspects of daily life...
for Victorians.
Origins and influences
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, as well as in the cultural issues facing the Victorian era. Among the most significant of these influences were the fantasy themes of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
and The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
. Other literary works, such as Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...
's The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is one of the longest poems in the English...
and Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
's mock-heroic
Mock-heroic
Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature...
The Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope, first published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellany in May 1712 in two cantos , but then revised, expanded and reissued under Pope's name on March 2, 1714, in a much-expanded 5-canto version...
have been cited as contributing influences as well. Innovations in stage production helped bring these works to the public eye, as the development of gaslight
Gas lighting
Gas lighting is production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, including hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, or natural gas. Before electricity became sufficiently widespread and economical to allow for general public use, gas was the most...
and improvements in wire-work led to increasingly elaborate special effects. Although once described by Douglas Jerrold as "a fairy creation that could only be acted by fairies", productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream became more common, eventually leading to an 1863 spectacle featuring Ellen Terry
Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....
as Titania astride a mechanical mushroom.
Cultural changes were also an important factor during this period. Continuing industrialization
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
was uprooting longstanding traditions, and rapid advances in science and technology, especially the invention of photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, left some people discomforted and confused. According to Jeremy Maas, the turn to mythological and fantasy elements, and in particular to the fairy's world, allowed an escape from these demands. "No other type of painting concentrates so many of the opposing elements of the Victorian psyche: the desire to escape the drear hardships of daily existence; the stirrings of new attitudes toward sex, stifled by religious dogma; a passion for the unseen; the birth of psychoanalysis; the latent revulsion against the exactitude of the new invention of photography." The significance of fairy paintings as a reaction to cultural change is not universally accepted, however. "Ultimately," Andrew Stuttaford wrote, "these paintings were just about fun."
Victorian fairy painting
Henry Fuseli
Henry Fuseli was a British painter, draughtsman, and writer on art, of Swiss origin.-Biography:...
and William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
produced works that would be indicative of the later genre even before 1800. However, the artist most closely associated with fairy painting was outsider artist Richard Dadd
Richard Dadd
Richard Dadd was an English painter of the Victorian era, noted for his depictions of fairies and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic genre scenes, rendered with obsessively minuscule detail...
, a suspected schizophrenic who produced most of his work while incarcerated in the Bethlem
Bethlem Royal Hospital
The Bethlem Royal Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in London, United Kingdom and part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Although no longer based at its original location, it is recognised as the world's first and oldest institution to specialise in mental illnesses....
psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
for the murder of his father. Despite his status and condition, his fantastic subjects and extraordinarily detailed style were generally well-received, with one period reviewer describing his work as "exquisitely ideal". He accompanied his masterpiece, The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke
The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke
The Fairy Fellers' Master-Stroke is a Richard Dadd painting. It was commissioned by George Henry Hayden, who was head steward at Bethlem Royal Hospital at the time. He was impressed by Dadd's artistic efforts and asked for a fairy painting of his own...
, with an elaborate poem providing historical, literary, or mythological context to each of the characters depicted.
Fairy painting was not exclusively the domain of outside art, however. The work of John Anster Fitzgerald
John Anster Fitzgerald
John Anster Christian Fitzgerald was a Victorian era fairy painter and portrait artist. He was nicknamed "Fairy Fitzgerald" for his main genre...
debuted at London's Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
. His work, in the form a series of Christmas-themed fairy illustrations, received wider public visibility in the Illustrated London News
Illustrated London News
The Illustrated London News was the world's first illustrated weekly newspaper; the first issue appeared on Saturday 14 May 1842. It was published weekly until 1971 and then increasingly less frequently until publication ceased in 2003.-History:...
. The Scottish artist Joseph Noel Paton
Joseph Noel Paton
Sir Joseph Noel Paton FRSA, LL. D. was a Scottish artist, born in Wooer's Alley, Dunfermline, Fife.Born to a family of weavers who worked with damask, Joseph continued the family trade for a short time...
exhibited two immensely detailed paintings based on the popular fairy scenes of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Even Edwin Landseer, sometimes named "Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
's favourite artist", produced a painting of Titania and Bottom
Nick Bottom
Nick Bottom is a character in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream who provides comic relief throughout the play, and is famously known for getting his head transformed into that of an ass by the elusive Puck within the play.- Overview :...
in the genre's style.
The genre also influenced the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti...
and the movement it began. Co-founder John Everett Millais
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...
produced a series of fairy paintings based on The Tempest, ending with his 1849 work Ferdinand Lured by Ariel
Ferdinand Lured by Ariel
Ferdinand Lured by Ariel is a painting by John Everett Millais which depicts an episode from Act I, Scene II of Shakespeare's play The Tempest. It illustrates Ferdinand's lines "Where should this music be? i' the air or the earth?". He is listening to Ariel singing the lyric "Full fathom five thy...
. Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...
, another of the Brotherhood's initial members, took a more sensual approach to the subject, in both painting and poetry. Others involved with the movement, such as Arthur Hughes
Arthur Hughes (artist)
Arthur Hughes , was an English painter and illustrator associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He is the uncle of the English painter Edward Robert Hughes.-Biography:Hughes was born in London...
and William Bell Scott
William Bell Scott
William Bell Scott was a Scottish poet and artist.-Life:The son of Robert Scott , the engraver, and brother of David Scott, the painter, he was born in Edinburgh. While a young man he studied art and assisted his father, and he published verses in the Scottish magazines...
, also contributed to the genre.
Although the Cottingley Fairies
Cottingley Fairies
The Cottingley Fairies appear in a series of five photographs taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, two young cousins who lived in Cottingley, near Bradford in England. In 1917, when the first two photographs were taken, Elsie was 16 years old and Frances was 10...
briefly revived interest in fae subjects, the waning of Romanticism and the advent of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
reduced interest in the styles and topics popular during the Victorian era. The illustrated fairy-tale books of Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator.-Biography:Rackham was born in London as one of 12 children. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office and began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.In 1892 he left his job and started working for The...
are considered its "final flowering".
Modern revival
The interest in fantasyFantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
art and literature
Fantasy literature
Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, literature has composed the majority of fantasy works. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other...
since the 1970s has seen a revival in the topics and styles of Victorian fairy painting, often in novel contexts. While artists such as Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Stephanie Pui-Mun Law is an American painter and illustrator who works predominantly in watercolor and whose art is inspired by, and depicts scenes of fantasy, the Other World, and the surreal...
have produced genre illustrations for book covers and role-playing games, the works of Brian Froud
Brian Froud
Brian Froud is an English fantasy illustrator. He lives and works in Devon with his wife, Wendy Froud, who is also a fantasy artist...
, also known for a series of illustrated fairy books, have been adapted into several successful motion pictures including The Dark Crystal
The Dark Crystal
The Dark Crystal is a 1982 British-American fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Although marketed as a family film, it was notably darker than previous material created by them. The animatronics used in the film were considered groundbreaking. The primary concept artist was the...
and Labyrinth
Labyrinth (film)
Labyrinth is a 1986 British/American fantasy film directed by Jim Henson, produced by George Lucas, and designed by Brian Froud. Henson collaborated on the screenwriting with children's author Dennis Lee, Terry Jones from Monty Python, and Elaine May .The film stars David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin...
. A 2003 book, The Art of Faery, written by David Riche and mentored by Froud, contributed to the careers of twenty fairy artists of this revival movement, including Amy Brown
Amy Brown
Amy Brown is a popular fantasy and fairy artist. Her career began in the 1990s, and today her watercolor designs appear on t-shirts, calendars, and buttons; and people have been using her images for tattoos. Two books of her artwork have been published, The Art of Amy Brown and The Art of Amy...
, Myrea Pettit
Myrea Pettit
Myrea Pettit is an English fantasy and fairy artist and illustrator born in Northampton. She studied with famed Swedish illustrator Ann Mari Sjogren painting flowers, butterflies and fairies like Tinkerbell from Peter Pan....
, Jasmine Becket-Griffith
Jasmine Becket-Griffith
Jasmine Becket-Griffith is a freelance artist who specializes in fairy, fantasy, and gothic artwork. Her preferred medium is acrylic on canvas or wood and her designs appear on many lines of licensed merchandise, notably through the chain stores Hot Topic and collectibles through the Bradford...
, Philippe Fernandez, James Browne, and Jessica Galbreth, many of whom went on to author individual art books. Depictions of fae have made their way into the popular culture in other ways as well, including clothing designs, ceramics, figurines, needlecraft, figurative art, quilting, many marketed through Hot Topic
Hot Topic
Hot Topic is an American retail chain specializing in music and pop culture-related clothing and accessories, as well as licensed music on CD. The majority of the stores are located in regional shopping malls. The first Hot Topic store was opened in 1988 by Orv Madden, who retired as CEO in 2000...
to an international market online. Renaissance fair
Renaissance Fair
A Renaissance fair, Renaissance faire, or Renaissance festival is an outdoor weekend gathering, usually held in the United States, open to the public and typically commercial in nature, which emulates a historic period for the amusement of its guests. Some are permanent theme parks, others are...
s and science fiction conventions have also developed modern fairy art as a genre of collectibles.