Titania’s Glove

Artist Robert Leishman (Inverkeithing, Scotland, 1916 - 1989)

Date1979

Object Namepainting

MediumOil on board

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsFrame Size (Height x Width x Depth): 71.2 x 105.9 x 3.8 cm

AcquisitionPresented in 2023 by Patricia Leishman.

LocationOn Display - Gallery

Object numberABDMS095750

About MeRobert Leishman’s art (like the art of Odilon Redon) is inspired by the imagery of dream and fantasy. He described his own creative process to the Courier in 1980, referring to his technique of “dreaming myself into the painting. I am a fairly slow painter…I tend to paint with the inward eye rather than with the outward-looking one so I visualise a lot.”

There is a poetic parallel between Titiana who is falling asleep in this painting and the ficional character, Titiana from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by Shakespeare. There is a scene in Act 2 where the fairies sing a lullaby to Titania, who is the Queen of Fairies:

Titania
Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence—
Some to kill cankers in the muskrose buds,
Some war with reremice for their leathern wings
To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep.
Then to your offices and let me rest.

[She lies down]. Fairies sing

A Midsummer Night's Dream
Act 2/Scene 2/ Line 1

The sleeping pose of Titiana in Leishman's painting is also reminiscent of a painting titled 'Titania Sleeping in the Moonlight Protected by Her Fairies' by John Simmons (1823–1876). Simmons was a British miniature painter and illustrator, known primarily for his watercolours of ethereal fairyland scenes, often illustrating Shakespearian or other literary works. It is possible that Leishman would have been familiar with Simmons' illustrations for 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

Exhibitions

Gallery 19 - New Acquisitions