In Tate Britain
- Artist
- Henry Singleton 1766–1839
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 1003 × 1257 mm
frame: 1150 × 1405 × 83 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Bequeathed by the artist 1840
- Reference
- N01027
Display caption
This picture depicts Ariel, the magical spirit in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. It was first exhibited accompanied by lines from Ariel’s last song: ‘On the bat’s back I do fly, After summer, merrily.’ Singleton’s decision to paint this entertaining and theatrical subject was a response to popular tastes of the time. The artist had begun his career as a promising history painter but many felt he did not realise his full potential.
Gallery label, October 2019
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- literature and fiction(3,165)
-
- characters(457)
-
- Ariel(1)
- Shakespeare(149)
- animals: actions(644)
-
- flying(133)
- bat(17)
- sky(1,007)
- night(681)
- actions: expressive(2,635)
-
- pointing(187)
- reclining(809)
- man(10,387)
- male(960)
- magic and occultism(651)
You might like
-
George Dawe Imogen Found in the Cave of Belarius
exhibited 1809 -
Theodor von Holst The Fairy Lovers
c.1840 -
Henry Fuseli Lady Macbeth Seizing the Daggers
?exhibited 1812 -
John Nost Sartorius The Earl of Darlington Fox-Hunting with the Raby Pack: Full Cry
1804 -
George Robert Lewis Hereford, from the Haywood, Noon
1815 -
Henry Perronet Briggs Romeo and Juliet - Act II Scene 5 (‘Juliet and her Nurse’)
exhibited 1827 -
Henry Fuseli Titania and Bottom
c.1790 -
Henry Fuseli The Shepherd’s Dream, from ‘Paradise Lost’
1793 -
Sir Thomas Lawrence John Philip Kemble as Hamlet
1801 -
Thomas Stothard Intemperance: Mark Antony and Cleopatra
c.1802, ?exhibited 1805 -
William Etty Candaules, King of Lydia, Shews his Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, as She Goes to Bed
exhibited 1830 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Tivoli: Tobias and the Angel
c.1835 -
Thomas Stothard Shakespearean Characters
exhibited 1813 -
George Frederic Watts A Story from Boccaccio
c.1844–7 -
George Richmond Abel the Shepherd
1825