Fine Books & Manuscripts Online
Fine Books & Manuscripts Online
Lot Closed
December 17, 08:09 PM GMT
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
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