1846, J.M.W. Turner, Queen Mab's Cave -- Tate Britain (London)
From the museum label: Turner exhibited this work at the British Institution, an exhibition venue run by art collectors. One reviewer called it 'a daylight dream... of gorgeous, bright, and positive colour, not painted but apparently flung upon the canvas'. To artist and critic John Ruskin, this was a strange example of the way in which the greatest men may at times lose themselves! The character of Queen Mab appeared in William Shakespeare's plays. Driving her chariot over sleeping people, she uncovers secret hopes in dreams. Turner references A Midsummer Night's Dream here, but he may have also read Queen Mab by Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
1846, J.M.W. Turner, Queen Mab's Cave -- Tate Britain (London)
From the museum label: Turner exhibited this work at the British Institution, an exhibition venue run by art collectors. One reviewer called it 'a daylight dream... of gorgeous, bright, and positive colour, not painted but apparently flung upon the canvas'. To artist and critic John Ruskin, this was a strange example of the way in which the greatest men may at times lose themselves! The character of Queen Mab appeared in William Shakespeare's plays. Driving her chariot over sleeping people, she uncovers secret hopes in dreams. Turner references A Midsummer Night's Dream here, but he may have also read Queen Mab by Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.