John George Naish (1824-1905)
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John George Naish (1824-1905)

Puck riding on a moth

Details
John George Naish (1824-1905)
Puck riding on a moth
oil on panel
3 7/8 x 3½ in. (9.8 x 8.9)
Provenance
with The Stone Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Fairy painting reached its zenith during the Victorian age. Painters and illustrators such as John Anster Fitzgerald, Sir Joseph Noel Paton, and Arthur Rackham provided pictorial escapism from the realities of an increasingly industrial age.

Naish was part of a second generation, experimenting with fairy subjects before turning his hand to landscapes. His extraordinary British Institution exhibit of 1856, Elves and Fairies: A Midsummer Night's Dream included a puck-like creature riding a moth; a similar boy sprite had also constituted the lone subject of Moon Fairies, a pair of oils executed in 1853 (see C. Wood, Fairies in Victorian Art, London, 2000, pp. 124-6).

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