Books

Published within Rackham's edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1908. The watercolor depicts Puck leading Lysander away from Demetrius in Act 3, scene 2. The piece appears opposite page 86 and is one of the 40 color plates. The board has the title added in the artist's hand, together with identification of the book and the artist's signature. This powerful illustration shows Rackham's thorough knowledge of the text of the play. Although simply entitled "Up and down, up and down", Rackham adds the "damned spirits all" to his composition and therefore depicts a passage from Puck's previous speech. In his biography of the artist, James Hamilton notes that Rackham's "interpretations of A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Wind in the Willows... have become definitive, and continue to challenge later illustrators to find new approaches". Writing about "Rackham's Best Book Illustrations", Fred Gettings states that in the artist's illustrations for A Midsummer Night's Dream "he created... among his finest color images and almost all the plates echo perfectly the mysterious interweaving of lightness and depth in this great work. Many of the formal plates are exquisite..." Original drawing (265 x 183 mm) on card, laid down on board, fine ink and watercolor, signed and dated ("Arthur Rackham 08") lower right, inscribed with title and additionally signed below mount, mounted, framed, and glazed (framed size: 480 x 372 mm). Fine and unfaded. Exhibited: Leicester Galleries, London, October - November 1908, item 19; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 5 January - 17 February 1974, item 23.

The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (Russian: Сон смешного человека) is a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky written in 1877. It chronicles the experiences of a man who believes nothing has any value and is ripe with existential insights into human life and a reformation of spirit.