John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893)
🧚🏻 The painting was originally accompanied by the following quote from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem entitled Night:
Wrap thy form in mantle grey Star in wrought!
Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day;
Kiss her until she be wearied out.
Then wonder o'er city and sea and land, Touching all with thine opiate wand - Come, long sought!
It shows a fairy, dressed in a transparent veil, flying above a seaside village. In Grimshaw's typical style, the scene is lit up by the moonlight, making the fairy and her veil shimmer.
AETATESOLIS