Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream

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Edwin Landseer, Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Titania and Bottom, 1851, National Gallery of Victoria.

Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Titania and Bottom is an 1851 oil-on-canvas painting by British artist

Melbourne, Australia
since 1932.

The painting shows Titania, Queen of the Fairies, after she has been given a love potion, embracing the temporary object of her love, the mechanical Nick Bottom. Bottom has been also enchanted and has the head of an ass. They are observed by other fairy folk, and the scene is decorated with flowers and rabbits.

The work measures 82.0 × 133.0 centimetres (32.3 × 52.4 in). It was one of several paintings of scenes from works by Shakespeare commissioned by

.

The painting was first exhibited the

white rabbit; the work may have influenced the white rabbit in his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
.

After Brunel's death in 1859, the painting was sold at auction in April 1860 and acquired by

Felton Bequest
) where it remains today.

References