William John Montaigne

Royal Academy, 1847, no.815

The canvas has been lined. There is some very fine craquelure to Titania otherwise the work appears in very good overall condition, clean and ready to hang. Under ultraviolet light there are flecked retouchings corresponding to infillings and two further areas of retouching in the sky. Held in its original gilt moulded plaster frame.
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John William Montaigne was the only son of a schoolmaster who became a Drillmaster at the Royal Chelsea Hospital and had served in the Crimea under the Duke of Wellington. In 1838 when John William junior was applying to enter the Royal Academy schools his father wrote to the great painter of nudes William Etty asking him for advice; 'I beg leave to state that my son has been indefatigable in his attention to his studies, and his love of the art knows no bounds'. Montaigne was accepted as a student at the schools where among his contemporaries was John Everett Millais. This began a long association with the Academy, where he exhibited for over fifty years although he made his debut at the Royal Society of Artists in 1839. The present picture was the second of his depictions of scenes from Midsummer Night's Dream (Titania Sleeping was shown in 1846) and reflects the vogue at the time for 'Fairy Paintings' made popular by the likes of Daniel Maclise, Joseph Noel Paton and Robert Huskisson. It was exhibited in the same year as Paton's famous The Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania (National Galleries of Scotland) and Robert Huskisson's The Midsummer Night Fairies (Tate). It demonstrates a similarity to Etty's painting of nudes and it is tempting to speculate that Etty had a practical influence upon the formative style of the young artist, instigated by his father.