f - GEORGE ROMNEY 1734-1802

THE PROPERTY OF A DECEASED ESTATE

TITANIA REPOSING WITH HER INDIAN VOTARIES

measurements note
116.8 by 148.6 cm., 46 by 58½ in.

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

With Agnew;
Buxton collection;
N.C. Neill collection;
With Leger, 1961, from whom acquired by the present owner

EXHIBITED

New York, Finch College Museum of Art, The Richard H. Rush Collection, 25th February - 25th April, 1971, no. 42;
London, National Portrait Gallery, George Romney, 1734-1802, 30th May - 18th August 2002, no.142

NOTE

This fascinating picture illustrates the opening of Act II, scene iii of A Midsummer Night's Dream when Titania addresses her fairies:

Come, now a roundel and a fairy song,
Then, for the third of a minute, hence;
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,
Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
Then to your offices, and let me rest.

The figures to the left of the composition are probably Lysander and Hermia who enter the scene after Titania falls asleep. The figure leaning on the tomb may be Oberon who is about to cast a spell over Titania so that she falls in love with Bottom.

Romney painted numerous scenes from Shakespeare, but this picture, and its companion piece Titania's Attendants Chasing Bats, are amongst his most ethereal and charming. The unrealised details create the impression of a world which sits somewhere between a mortal and a fairy existence, an impression which aptly captures the tone of Shakespeare's play.

A Midsummer Night's Dream was one of Romney's favourite plays, and his sketchbooks contain numerous sketches of the figure of Titania. Romney is known to have produced "various unfinished pictures representing Titania under different circumstances and in different attitudes" (Alex Kidson, National Portrait Gallery Exhibition Catalogue, op. cit, p.227) and this, and the following lot, illustrate a vibrant, and alternative dimension to Romney's oeuvre.