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A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare, Act 4, Scene 1)

Engraver Samuel Cousins British
Subject William Shakespeare British
November , 1857
Not on view
The fairy queen Titania here leans adoringly against Bottom, a weaver who has magically been given the head of an ass (in Shakespeare’s act 4, scene 1). Fairies and enchanted animals attend the pair within a woodland bower, as the queen’s gauzy attire and her paramour’s Turkish slippers suggest a harem scene. Watching gleefully from behind is Puck, the sprite who engineered the bizarre coupling at the behest of the queen’s angry husband, Oberon. Cousins skillfully manipulated the soft tonal technique of mezzotint and mixed it with other intaglio methods to reproduce a painting by the celebrated animal painter Landseer. When that work (made for the English engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel) was exhibited in 1851, Queen Victoria praised it as "a gem, beautiful, fairy-like and graceful."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare, Act 4, Scene 1)
  • Artist: After Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (British, London 1802–1873 London)
  • Engraver: Samuel Cousins (British, Exeter 1801–1887 London)
  • Subject: William Shakespeare (British, Stratford-upon-Avon 1564–1616 Stratford-upon-Avon)
  • Date: November , 1857
  • Medium: Mixed method engraving with mezzotint on chine collé; second state of three
  • Dimensions: Plate: 25 11/16 × 37 5/16 in. (65.2 × 94.7 cm)
    Sheet: 28 7/16 × 38 7/16 in. (72.2 × 97.7 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1947
  • Object Number: 47.30.46
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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