Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/henry-fuseli-198" aria-label="More by Henry Fuseli" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Henry Fuseli</a>
Titania and Bottom
Presented by Miss Julia Carrick Moore in accordance with the wishes of her sister 1887
‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
animal / human
animals: fantastic
animals: mammals
arm / arms raised
Bottom
characters
courtier
donkey
embracing
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
fairy
female
flying
forest
landscape
literature and fiction
love
magic and occultism
man
night
nudes
people
queen
religion and belief
royalty and social rank
Shakespeare
sitting
spell
standing
times of the day
Titania
transformation
universal concepts
woman
work and occupations
<p>This monumental painting shows a scene from Shakespeare’s <span>A Midsummer Night’s Dream</span>. A spell is cast on Titania, the queen of the fairies, making her fall in love with Bottom, whose head has been transformed into a donkey’s. Henry Fuseli imaginatively fills the picture with fairies and fantastical creatures. The painting was one of the stars of the Shakespeare Gallery in London, which opened in 1789. The gallery helped define a school of painting in Britain which valued artistic individuality and variety. The originality of Fuseli’s art was seen as a sign of his genius.</p><p><em>Gallery label, May 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
24 October 2001 – 11 July 2005
2005-07-11
24 October 2001
2001-10-24
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-10-24
Making British History
Collection based display
15 February 2006 – 1 May 2006
2006-05-01
15 February 2006 – 1 May 2006
2006-05-01
2006-02-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-02-15
Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination
Exhibition
6 August 2010 – 24 August 2011
2011-08-24
6 August 2010 – 24 August 2011
2011-08-24
2010-08-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-08-06
Blake and the Gothic Imagination
Collection based display
2 September 2011 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
2 September 2011 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
2011-09-02
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2011-09-02
Romantic Shakespeare
Collection based display
14 April 2014 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
14 April 2014 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
2014-04-14
Fondazione Terzo Pilastro - Palazzo Cipolla (Rome, Italy)
2014-04-14
Hogarth, Reynolds, Turner: British Painting and the Rise of Modernity
Loan-out
26 September 2022
26 September 2022
2022-09-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-09-26
Gallery 10
Collection based display
Titania and Bottom
support: 2172 × 2756 mm
frame: 3167 × 2600 × 155 mm
Presented by Miss Julia Carrick Moore in accordance with the wishes of her sister 1887
<p>Fuseli was introduced to Shakespeare's plays during his student days in Zürich with the Swiss scholar Jacob Bodmer.<i> A Midsummer Night's Dream </i>held a special appeal for him, in that it explores the realms of the supernatural.
<br/>
<br/>In the picture Fuseli illustrates a moment from Act IV scene 1, in which Oberon, in order to punish her for her pride, casts a spell on Queen Titania, as a result of which she falls in love with Bottom, whose head has been transformed into that of an ass. In the play she murmurs lovingly to the object of her affections,
<br/></p>
<blockquote>Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
<br/>While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
<br/>And stick musk roses in thy sleek smooth head,
<br/>And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.</blockquote>
<p>
<br/>Fuseli's imagination is given free reign in this fantastical scene. Titania calls on her fairies, who are wearing contemporary dress, to attend to Bottom: Pease-blossom scratches his ass's head; Mustard-seed perches on his hand in order to assist; and Cobweb kills a bee and brings him the honey-bag. A leering young woman offers him a basket of dried peas. The young woman leading a dwarf-like creature by a string symbolises the triumph of youth over old age, of the senses over the mind and of woman over man. The hooded old woman on the right is holding a changeling newly formed out of wax. Similarly, on the left of the picture, the group of children are artificial beings created by witches.
<br/>
<br/>The picture draws on several artistic sources. Fuseli has adapted Titania's seductive pose from Leonardo da Vinci's <i>Leda</i>
(<i>c</i>.1506, Galleria Borghese, Rome). The elves plunging into the calyx on the right are inspired by Botticelli's illustration of Canto XXX of Dante's <i>Paradiso</i> (<i>c</i>.1469). And the small girl with a butterfly head on the left derives from a type of child <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a></p>
<p> developed by Reynolds, whereby the child's features closely resemble a cat, mouse or other small creature posed with her.
<br/>
<br/>Fuseli painted several other scenes from <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i>, including <i>Titania's Awakening</i> (1785-90, Kunstmuseum, Winterthur), where the Queen awakes and recounts her 'dream' to Oberon. He was also inspired by other Shakespearean texts and was particularly drawn to the supernatural and irrational elements in such plays as <i>The Tempest</i>, <i>Hamlet </i>and <i>King Lear</i>.
<br/>
<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/><i>Henry Fuseli 1741-1825</i>, Tate Gallery, London 1975, pp.61-2, reproduced p.62.
<br/>Jeremy Maas, <i>Victorian Fairy Painting</i>, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy of Arts, London 1997, p.12.
<br/>
<br/>Frances Fowle
<br/>December 2000
<br/></p>

Summary
2011-05-18T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>This monumental painting shows a scene from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A spell is cast on Titania, the queen of the fairies, making her fall in love with Bottom, whose head has been transformed into a donkey’s. Henry Fuseli imaginatively fills the picture with fairies and fantastical creatures. The painting was one of the stars of the Shakespeare Gallery in London, which opened in 1789. The gallery helped define a school of painting in Britain which valued artistic individuality and variety. The originality of Fuseli’s art was seen as a sign of his genius.</p>
</div>

Online caption
2023-11-29T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ animal / human animals: fantastic animals: mammals arm / arms raised Bottom characters courtier donkey embracing emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas fairy female flying forest landscape literature and fiction love magic and occultism man night nudes people queen religion and belief royalty and social rank Shakespeare sitting spell standing times of the day Titania transformation universal concepts woman work and occupations