COVE

            This work of art called Titania, Oberon and Puck was painted by William Blake in the year 1786. The painting is a depiction of some of the characters from the William Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a work that become one of the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays due to its witty humor, comedic characters, and the chaos that ensues form the very beginning. While this play wasn’t written during Britain’s Romantic period, it certainly checks off many of its important characteristics, which is why this painter chose it as his subject. William Blake was a British artist that felt compelled to portray Romantic era themes in a different way than what the popular French artists were doing at the time. He felt the cold, logical viewpoint of the previous Enlightenment period had no place in his art. Imagination was the key to his creativity. Blakes said, “Imagination is not a state: it is human existence itself.” The pastel colors he uses in this painting are there to inspire a whimsical, otherworldly feeling in the viewers. In keeping with Romanticism at the time, William shows nature, freedom, and frivolity in this painting. The play the painting portrays is well-known as one that advocates nature and emotion over logic and reason.

            Symbolism can also be found in William Blake’s work. He was known to be involved in the “free love” movement of his time. The women dancing in this painting is one way that he depicted this ideology, their circle symbolizing never-ending femininity and open sexuality (A very forward way of thinking for this time and place.). The subjects in this painting are also wearing plants, which fits with the Romantic attitude that mankind lives in nature and is, thus, at its mercy. All of these features make Titania, Oberon and Puck by William Blake a perfect fit for the Romantic era in Britain.

Citation Information:

https://musings-on-art.org/romanticism