Midsummer Eve – Edward Robert Hughes (1908)

A young woman crowned with flowers bends over a ring of tiny fairies in a dark wood, their lanterns glowing like fireflies in the grass. In Midsummer Eve, Edward Robert Hughes paints the shortest night of the year, when, in English folklore, the fairy world comes closest to ours.

The fairies hold up glowing lanterns shaped like shells, seed pods and flowers, and one of them blows out the candle of a lantern fallen in the grass. Her golden dress lit from below, a flute tucked under her arm, the young woman leans towards them with a smile, as if invited to join their dance.

Why it works on your wall

• A touch of magic: deep greens and glowing golds bring warmth to a bedroom, a child's room or a reading corner
• A tall format: ideal for a narrow wall or above a bed
• Framing tip: a thin gold or dark wood frame makes the little lights shine

The painting

Hughes first showed Midsummer Eve at the Royal Watercolour Society in 1908. It is a watercolour heightened with gouache, unusually large for the medium, and it is now in a private collection. The nephew of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Arthur Hughes and for many years the studio assistant of William Holman Hunt, Edward Robert Hughes (1851–1914) was admired for his luminous, dreamlike watercolours.

• Artist: Edward Robert Hughes (1851–1914)
• Date: around 1908
• Technique: watercolour and gouache, about 114 × 76 cm
• Movement: late Pre-Raphaelite

Your print

• Colours restored from a high-definition scan of the original
• Printed in Europe on thick archival matte paper, FSC certified
• From A4 to A0, plus 40×60, 50×70, 60×90 and 70×100 cm and 12×18 to 27×40 inch sizes, all made for standard frames
• Free shipping, no minimum order. Shipped rolled in a sturdy tube

Explore our fairy tale prints and our Pre-Raphaelite art prints.