Fairy Artwork has existed for a long time.
Faeries in Artwork
In a recent post, I wrote about fairies in literature, which started largely with Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. Before Shakespeare, faeries were feared in literature and life (Broome, 2018). But being inspired by Puck, Titania, and Oberon, artists of the Victorian era began reimagining the fairies that had once haunted their world (Fairy Painting, 2019).
The first few artists to do so were Henry Fuseli and William Blake. The most interesting of the early Victorian painters was Richard Dadd. He not only painted, but created poetry to accompany his work. Unfortunately, he did most of his work from a mental institution after committing a murder, so his work was the product of a tortured mind.
The most prominent and renowned painter of fae people was John Anster Fitzgerald (Tate, n.d.). He created much of the magical scenes we still associate with fairies. Eventually the paintings became the more flowery work of artists like Arthur Rackham, whose art accompanied Grimm's Fairy Tales.
The best way to explore fairy art is to browse the paintings, as you can do on the Tate Museum website: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/fairy-painting
I hope you'll check these paintings out!
Thanks for reading!
References:
Broome, F. 2008. How Shakespeare Changed Everything. Retrieved from https://faeriemagick.com/how-shakespeare-changed-everything/
(n.d.). Fairy. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/fairy
(2019, August 7). Fairy painting. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_painting
Tate. (n.d.). Fairy painting – Art Term. Retrieved from https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/fairy-painting