RACKHAM, ARTHUR — [WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE] | "The Moon Like to a Silver Bow New-Bent in Heaven," original illustration executed in 1907 for A Midsummer Night's Dream. London: Heinemann, 1908

RACKHAM, ARTHUR — [WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE]

"The Moon Like to a Silver Bow New-Bent in Heaven," original illustration executed in 1907 for A Midsummer Night's Dream. London: Heinemann, 1908

Pen, ink, and watercolor on board (sight: 260 x 190 mm), signed "Arthur Rackham 07" lower right. Matted, framed, and glazed; exhibition labels to verso (not examined out of frame).  

This drawing is one of seventy illustrations Rackham produced for William Heinemann's 1911 edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream,which the artist exhibited at the Leicester Gallery, London, in 1908. The image at hand accompanies Hippolyta's opening lines in the palace of Theeseus in Act I Scene I: 

"Four days will quickly sleep themselves in night;

Four nights will quickly dream away the time; 

And then the moon, like to a silver bow

New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night

Of our solemnities." 

Original illustrations from A Midsummer Night's Dream are quite desirable — another work from this series sold for $39,650 in 2010. 

PROVENANCE:

Exhibited: The Leicester Galleries, London (October 1908), to Mrs. J. H. Ionides — Private Collection — by descent to current owner