the World of Fairies

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[unknown]

Sonnet To Science Science! true daughter of old time thou art! Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes. Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart, Vulture, whose wings are dull realities? How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise, Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering, To seek for treasured jewels in the skies, Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing? Hast though not dragged Dianna from her car? And driven the Hamadryad from the wood To seek shelter in some happier star? Hast thou not torn the naid from her flood, The Elfin from the grass, and from me The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree? Edgar Allen Poe

[Bianca]

Is the picture your creation, Unk?

b

[unknown]

Hi Bianca

Yes, it's one of mine...

[Bianca]

                                                    L O V E   I T !!!!!!!!!!!

[unknown]

Hi Bianca

Thank you dear...

[Bianca]

 
                        Tiptoeing Through the Toadstools: Mushrooms in Victorian Fairy Paintings





by Moselio Schaechter
For some time now, I have been mushrooming on the Internet, searching for works of art with fungi in them (not on them, which of course could be of concern to art conservators). At first I though the pickings would be slim - and that only few pieces include mushrooms. Not so.

The Baroque Italian and Dutch painters of still lifes incorporated them in their scenes quite often. Recently, I became aware of another mother lode: In British paintings of the Victorian era, mushrooms appear quite frequently in works of art devoted to fairies and fantasies. These paintings, of a genre known fittingly as "Victorian Fairy Paintings," have received attention in recent years. It has been the subject of exhibitions at major museums, such as New York's Frick Collection. In these works, mushrooms appear not just as outdoor decorations, but are - at long last - part of the central theme.



  'A Fairy Ring' by Walter Jenks Morgan, RBA, RBSA (1847-1924). Courtesy of The Leicester Gallery

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Victorian Fairy Paintings depict scenes of the hidden-from-view world of fairies and elves: little creatures that consorted with mice, butterflies, and birds of their own dimensions. This was a world of scantly clad or **** miniature people who impishly cavorted in the very face of prudish Victorian convention. For proper scale, imagine winged, leggy, half-sized Barbie dolls fluttering around mushrooms. Paintings of this genre were very popular in the middle of the 1850's and by 1870 had become a craze. To the modern eye, "cute" seems inescapable, yet this ethereal art form has its own fascination even now. Whimsical though they are, these works have a somber purpose and even a melancholic and perhaps sinister side. Much has been written about the origin and success of these paintings: desire to depart from the academic art that preceded them, fascination with romantic subjects in natural settings, popularity of the occult and the supernatural, and, not least, the casual use of laudanum, a mixture of alcohol and opiates.



Triumphal March of the Elf King by Night' by Richard 'Dicky' Doyle (1824-83). Courtesy of The Leicester Gallery.

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'Come, Now a Roundel' (1908)
by Arthur Rackham (1867-1939).
Courtesy of The Endicott Studio
 





 

In these paintings, mushrooms unquestionably are part of the scene. They are as integral to the enchanting spectacle as are the gnomes and elves themselves. Mushrooms belong in the lower reaches of the forest and their presence there is as natural as the sprites and pixies. They all go together. Most likely, the inhabitants of this miniature world must have been pretty good mycologists.

Mushrooms continued to be depicted in notable works of fantasy. They are portrayed in the illustrations in Alice in Wonderland and in Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. Here, mushrooms reach gigantic proportions, as witnessed by the narrative: "After we had gone about five hundred yards, we suddenly turned a steep promontory, and found ourselves close to a lofty forest! It consisted of straight trunks with tufted tops, in shape like parasols.... My uncle unhesitatingly called them by their real names. 'It is only,' he said, in his coolest manner, 'a forest of mushrooms.'.... I had heard that the Lycoperdon giganteum reaches nine feet in circumference, but here were white mushrooms, nearly forty feet high, and with tops of equal dimensions."

Through the ages, many cultures held mushrooms in awe. In the Western world at least, it took the Victorians to give these feelings a visual manifestation.


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Elio Schaechter is working on a registry of works of art that contain mushrooms. He would like to hear of any "finds" at mschaech@sunstroke.sdsu.edu.

This article first appeared in the Winter, 2003 issue of Mushroom, the Journal of Wild Mushrooming.

 

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