'A Midsummer-Night's Dream' was ideally suited to Rackham's genius and he illustrated three separate editions - in 1908, 1928 and 1939. The drawings for the 1968 edition, to which the present drawing belongs, are among his best, humorous and whimsical one moment, sombre and disturbing the next. Other examples are in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum.

The preparatory study for this drawing was sold in these Rooms on 26 Feb, 1985 lot 39