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Lot Essay
Gustave Doré held a deep and lasting attraction to English literature. After relocating to London in 1866 and establishing a gallery devoted to his work, he re-engaged with British Romantic writers and other pillars of the literary canon through newly edited and republished volumes. Over the next decade, he emerged as one of the foremost illustrators of such editions, taking on major projects that included Milton’s Paradise Lost, Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, and works by Lord Byron and Charles Dickens. Most ambitiously, Doré declared his desire 'to make Shakespeare my masterpiece' (A. Renonciat, La vie et l’oeuvre de Gustave Doré, Paris, 1983, p. 188). Despite this aspiration, and although engravings based on his designs for Macbeth appeared in 1870, the anticipated ‘Doré Shakespeare’ was never fully realised. As one contemporary source noted, the project had been discussed for years, and audiences could readily imagine the kinds of scenes Doré might create—Prospero’s island or the moonlit groves of Oberon and Titania—even if his interpretations might diverge from traditional English expectations (E. Ollier, Doré, A Doré Gallery, 1870; reprinted, New York, 1974, p. 41).
In the absence of a comprehensive illustrated Shakespeare works like this pair of watercolours offer a compelling sense of what might have been. Doré had earlier explored A Midsummer Night’s Dream in oil, depicting a moonlit woodland alive with delicately draped fairies gathered amid dense foliage, while tiny, winged sprites dart and whisper among themselves. In these watercolours, however, he amplifies the sense of otherworldliness.
These two works begin to explore the remarkable visual potential of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, often considered Shakespeare’s most vividly imaginative play. Soft, translucent washes of colour evoke a miniature fairy court hovering around Titania, who reclines on a bower of woodbine. Cobweb, Peaseblossom, Mustardseed, and Moth are depicted singing to her. The oval format of the compositions subtly mirrors the swirling motion of the fairy ring. Its companion piece, set deeper within the forest, employs richer tones—violets, blues, and yellows—to create a more subdued, dreamlike atmosphere. At its centre a fairy figure sounds a pair of flower-shaped trumpets. This is likely to depict the arrival of Oberon.
In the absence of a comprehensive illustrated Shakespeare works like this pair of watercolours offer a compelling sense of what might have been. Doré had earlier explored A Midsummer Night’s Dream in oil, depicting a moonlit woodland alive with delicately draped fairies gathered amid dense foliage, while tiny, winged sprites dart and whisper among themselves. In these watercolours, however, he amplifies the sense of otherworldliness.
These two works begin to explore the remarkable visual potential of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, often considered Shakespeare’s most vividly imaginative play. Soft, translucent washes of colour evoke a miniature fairy court hovering around Titania, who reclines on a bower of woodbine. Cobweb, Peaseblossom, Mustardseed, and Moth are depicted singing to her. The oval format of the compositions subtly mirrors the swirling motion of the fairy ring. Its companion piece, set deeper within the forest, employs richer tones—violets, blues, and yellows—to create a more subdued, dreamlike atmosphere. At its centre a fairy figure sounds a pair of flower-shaped trumpets. This is likely to depict the arrival of Oberon.