A Midsummer Night's Dream
About the painting
Arthur Rackham produced this illustration for an edition of William Shakespeare’s play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, published in 1908 by Heinemann. From Act II, Scene 1, the drawing depicts a mermaid sitting on the back of a dolphin. It illustrates a memory that Oberon, the king of the Faeries, recounts to the character of Puck;
My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
That the rude sea grew civil at her song
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid's music.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- P.34-1917
Meanwhile, in the life of Arthur Rackham
The whole life1906
Gold medal at the Milan International Exhibition
He wins a gold medal at the Milan International Exhibition; he will win another at the Barcelona International Exposition in 1912.
1906
Moves to Chalcot Gardens
From 1906 the family lives at Chalcot Gardens, near Haverstock Hill, until leaving London in 1920.
1908
Birth of his daughter Barbara
Four years after the miscarriage, Barbara is born to Rackham and Edyth, the couple's only daughter.
