Arthur Rackham | Original illustration for A Midsummer Night's Dream ("...the moon, like to a silver bow | New-bent in heaven"), 1907, signed

Arthur Rackham

"...the moon, like to a silver bow | New-bent in heaven", 1907, original illustration for A Midsummer Night's Dream

357 x 226mm. (frame 599 x 445mm.), watercolour, pen, and ink, SIGNED AND DATED BY THE ARTIST ON LOWER RIGHT ("Arthur Rackham—07"), framed and glazed

This bewitching illustration depicts the marriage between Theseus and Hippolyta in Act I, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's comedy. "Rackham's fantastical interpretation... remains the definitive version [of Shakespeare's play] which inspired generations of stage and screen productions. His illustrations were known in French, Italian, and German editions of the book" (Engen).

PROVENANCE:

from the collection of the late Colin White

EXHIBITION:

Dulwich Picture Gallery, December 2002-March 2003

LITERATURE:

Reproduced as a colour plate in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. New York and London, 1908, p. 2; reproduced in Rodney Engen, Arthur Rackham. London, 2002, p. 98 (publication accompanying Dulwich Picture Gallery exhibition)