- 34
Daniel Maclise, R.A.
Description
- Daniel Maclise, R.A.
- pan and the dancing fairies (the faun and the fairies)
- oil on panel, oval
Provenance
Private collection
Exhibited
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Fairies, 1980, no.D60;
Royal Academy, Victorian Fairy Painting, 1998, no.15;
The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama and Ashikaga Museum of Art, Fairy Painting in Britain, 2003-2004, no.51
Literature
James Dafforne, Pictures by Daniel Maclise R.A., 1873, p.51;
Beatrice Phillpotts, Fairy Paintings, 1978, illus. plate.8
Condition
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
Maclise's painting depicts a fantasy contained within a double rainbow around which a circle of naked fairy-folk cavort with one another, embracing, dipping their toes into a pool of silvery water, riding a tiger-moth and fighting with a bat. Their naked bodies are twisted together in a continuous circle of lissom, nubile flesh. At the centre of the composition is the figure of a faun playing pan-pipes and watching the amorous pageant. He is leaning on a flowery riverbank, beneath which are sheltering more imps or goblins in a dark cavern. Above him are the leaves and grapes of a vine which appear to be growing from his hair like a Green Man. The painting is lit by the silvery light of the full-moon and the rainbow.
The fauns and satyrs appear regularly in classical literature as symbols of the untamed woods, groves and mountain glens. They were the drunken revellers of Bacchus' festivities and wicked pursuers of the nymphs. With the legs, tail and horns of a goat they symbolised sexuality and fertility. Pan was a faun that lived in Arcadia and was a demi-god that protected shepherds and their flocks. His many lovers included Syrinx the water-nymph whose body was turned into the reeds from which Pan made the pipes that he played after audaciously challenging Apollo to a musical tournament.
Pan and the Dancing Fairies was owned by the novelist, poet, playwright and politician Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–1873). Lord Lytton was one of the most popular writers of his day and coined such phrases as "the great unwashed", "pursuit of the almighty dollar", "the pen is mightier than the sword", and the infamous incipit "It was a dark and stormy night." He was the youngest son of General William Earle Bulwer of Heydon Hall and Wood Dalling in Norfolk and Elizabeth Barbara Lytton, daughter of Richard Warburton Lytton of Knebworth in Hertfordshire. Maclise visited Bulwer-Lytton at Knebworth on a number of occasions, often in the company of Charles Dickens and John Forster. Maclise also owned Combat of Two Knights by Maclise (untraced) and in 1850 he commissioned a full-length portrait (Knebworth House). Lytton was at the height of his artistic powers in the 1830s when he wrote Godolphin (1833), The Last days of Pompeii (1834), Rienzi: Last of the Tribunes (1835). He bought Pan and the Dancing Fairies from Maclise sometime before 1834 and it was engraved by Frederick Bacon for Lytton's book of that year The Pilgrims of the Rhine, a strange combination of travelogue and fairy story based upon contemporary German folklore, notably la Motte Fouqué's Undine of 1811. According to Bulwer Lytton's biographer Michael Sadlier he based his stories on existing paintings rather than commissioning artists to illustrate his text. The engraving of Pan and the Dancing Fairies accompanied the story of 'The Complaint of the Last Faun' which tells of a faun persuaded to make music for fairies and goblins to dance to. The painting was originally titled Pan and the Dancing Fairies but acquired its alternative title when it was engraved to lessen the association with the sylvan Greek god.
This painting is one of Maclise's most magical pictures and predates his famous depiction of fairyland, Scene from Undine of 1843 (The Royal Collection) in which similar fairies inhabit the haunted forest presided over by the heroine's father. Pan and the Dancing Fairies is an early example of a genre of painting that became popular over the next few decades with artists like Maclise and the likes of Richard Dadd, John Anster Fitzgerald and Joseph Noel Paton.