![](https://www.tate.org.uk/static/images/placeholder/placeholder-4x3.b312143b17e7.gif)
Not on display
- Artist
- Theodor von Holst 1810–1844
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 413 × 311 mm
frame: 537 × 437 × 80 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1972
- Reference
- T01518
Display caption
Here Oberon and Titania, fairy lovers from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, are shown dancing under the light of the moon. The fairies’ tip-toe steps, flower and insect wing headdresses, dancing drapery and an eerie light create a magical effect.
Gallery label, October 2020
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Catalogue entry
Theodore von Hoist 1810–1844
T01518 The Fairy Lovers c.1840
Not inscribed.
Canvas, 16¼ x 12¼ (41 x 31).
Purchased at Christie’s (Gytha Trust) 1972.
Coll: Rev. George Cuff, sold Fawkham Rectory, Kent, 9 February 1887, bt. John Ames; by descent to M.Ames, sold Christie’s, 18 February 1972 (283), bt. Agnew’s for the Tate Gallery.
This picture was sold at Christie’s together with Hoist’s ‘A milkmaid and her lover’ (284), also from the collection of the Reverend George Cuff, but painted on board and a bit larger, 19½ x 14 in.; the two pictures of lovers do not therefore seem to have been conceived as pendants.
An identification with Titania and Oberon, from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is possible.
Published in The Tate Gallery Report 1970–1972, London 1972.
Explore
- emotions, concepts and ideas(16,416)
-
- emotions and human qualities(5,345)
-
- love(516)
- characters(438)
- actions: expressive(2,622)
- running(125)
- magic and occultism(206)
-
- fairy(37)
- sex and relationships(833)
-
- couple(1,322)
You might like
-
William Blake The Circle of the Lustful: Francesca da Rimini (‘The Whirlwind of Lovers’)
1826–7, reprinted 1892 -
Henry Perronet Briggs Romeo and Juliet - Act II Scene 5 (‘Juliet and her Nurse’)
exhibited 1827 -
Henry Singleton Ariel on a Bat’s Back
exhibited 1819 -
Thomas Faed Faults on Both Sides
1861 -
George Frederic Watts A Story from Boccaccio
c.1844–7 -
George Frederic Watts Life’s Illusions
1849 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Between Decks
1827 -
Augustus Leopold Egg Past and Present, No. 2
1858 -
William Lindsay Windus Too Late
1858 -
William Etty The Fairy of the Fountain
1845 -
Frederic George Stephens The Proposal (The Marquis and Griselda)
c.1850 -
William Etty The Parting of Hero and Leander
exhibited 1827 -
Edward Williams A Village Forge: Moonlight
?exhibited 1845 or 1847 -
Robert Huskisson The Midsummer Night’s Fairies
exhibited 1847 -
Richard Redgrave The Emigrant’s Last Sight of Home
1858