{"id":10678,"date":"2025-07-28T08:29:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T12:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/?p=10678"},"modified":"2025-07-28T08:29:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T12:29:47","slug":"the-fantastical-art-of-john-simmons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/the-fantastical-art-of-john-simmons\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fantastical Art of John Simmons"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><div id=\"tdi_1\" class=\"tdc-row\"><div class=\"vc_row tdi_2  wpb_row td-pb-row\" >\n<style scoped>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.tdi_2,\r\n                .tdi_2 .tdc-columns{\r\n                    min-height: 0;\r\n                }.tdi_2,\r\n\t\t\t\t.tdi_2 .tdc-columns{\r\n\t\t\t\t    display: block;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_2 .tdc-columns{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_2:before,\r\n\t\t\t\t.tdi_2:after{\r\n\t\t\t\t    display: table;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\n<\/style><div class=\"vc_column tdi_4  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<style scoped>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.tdi_4{\r\n                    vertical-align: baseline;\r\n                }.tdi_4 > .wpb_wrapper,\r\n\t\t\t\t.tdi_4 > .wpb_wrapper > .tdc-elements{\r\n\t\t\t\t    display: block;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_4 > .wpb_wrapper > .tdc-elements{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_4 > .wpb_wrapper > .vc_row_inner{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_4 > .wpb_wrapper{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t    height: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\n<\/style><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\" >[vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Feature Image:<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>A Scene From \u2018A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u2019 (1873)Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text]<div class=\"wpb_wrapper td_block_empty_space td_block_wrap vc_empty_space tdi_6 \"  style=\"height: 32px\"><\/div>[vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;]<span class=\"dropcap dropcap2\">W<\/span>hen fairy fever struck the Victorians, they never recovered. Many would say thank goodness for that, as this fever created some of the most beautiful art to float gently on the breezes of the 19th century, art that still captures our imagination today. One of the most impactful yet mysteriously unknown proponents of this fashion for fae was a modest young artist from the southwest of England. This is the story of John Simmons (1823\u20131876).[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10680&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;]&#8221;By the time Simmons found his forte in fairyland, it had already been in fashion for over a decade. On stage and canvas, Shakespeare was always a commercial favorite, and The Tempest and A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream fit the fashion for the supernatural. At the end of the previous century, fantasy artist Henry Fuseli (1741\u20131825) produced influential and popular illustrations for a folio of the Bard\u2019s plays that enabled them to be reproduced and sold to a greater audience. His classical yet raucous images of Titania and Bottom paved the way for a genre of art that could be literary and still pleasingly nude. This foreshadowed what was to follow in the 19th century\u2019s years of fairies, with artists such as Richard Dadd, who offered his interpretation of midsummer madness with Puck from 1841 and Contradiction: Oberon and Titania from 1854\u201358.<\/p>\n<p>A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream also held sway on the stage, delighting audiences during this period. Its poetic language, lack of tragedy, and fantasy elements lifted audiences from the industrial modern world they inhabited. Samuel Phelps\u2019s production at Sadler\u2019s Wells in 1853 used layers of green and blue gauze to create a dreamlike separation from fairyland, close to us but still beyond our grasp. Opera singer and producer Lucia Elizabeth Vestris (1797\u20131856) drew her audience into fairyland in her 1840 revival of the play at Covent Garden, using flittering lights around the theater to suggest the fairies when Oberon proclaimed that they \u201cthrough the house give glimmering light.\u201d With her background not only in grand opera but also in burlesque, Vestris also knew how to tread the fine line between fairy costume and scantily clad scandal, which would become pertinent in the paintings that followed.<\/p>\n<p>This experience with the fantasy of fairyland and the human yearning for it drew artists to create canvases that brought this specific Shakespeare play to an artistic audience. The plays beguiled the public, but more importantly, they ensnared the imagination of artists, drawing them deeper into this world. John Simmons had been a portrait and miniature artist, making a modest living in Bristol, in the crevice of Southwest England, across the water from Wales. Miles from the Royal Academy, he painted local dignitaries but did not create any ripples in the art world at large. These earnest and dignified works earned him membership in the Bristol Academy of Fine Arts, where he also taught. All in all, he was a well-respected man by both his pupils and peers and regarded as kindhearted, congenial, and an encouraging teacher. His marriage in the 1850s and the four children who arrived in quick succession in the 1860s seem to have coincided with his change from portraits to fairies, a reckless and inspired move that brought him fame, if only for a while.<\/p>\n<p>His training as a miniaturist was surely a gift for a man entering the delicate world of the fae. Each of his visions was executed with clarity, detail, and a smooth finish as if it\u2019d been brushed onto glass. His dreams of fairyland were both innocent yet alluring, free of any mischief and malice that crept into some fae imagery of the time. Instead, Simmons found his ideal of womanhood in the peerless Titania, statuesque and naked. In this he drew an interesting parallel to Vestris\u2019s performances. Sharing the high art is all very well, but everyone would want to sneak a look at a beautiful naked lady. Take, for example, The Honey Bee Steals From the Bumble Bees (opposite), where we see a woman with pale moth wings regarding an errant bee caught taking pollen from a drowsy bumble bee. As the title references a line from A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream, we know it is the figure of Titania who is shining a light on this theft, the pinprick of bright burning from the tip of her hair-thin wand as she looks on admonishingly. Pale,with a cascade of platinum blonde hair, our Fairy Queen is naked but for the thinnest veil of gauze that seems to swoop from her waist to cover her modesty but very little else. It is debatable whether we are meant to feel titillated by this ivory queen or to await her judgement of our own misdeeds.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10682&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;]The same figure with powder-soft wings appears in one of Simmons\u2019s best-known paintings, Titania (1866) (not shown here). On the frame is inscribed the repeated motto: \u201cThe honey bags steal from the humblebees.\u201d The fairy queen once more glows in her spiderweb-thin gown, a spectral orb among the flowers and foliage. Echoing her pallor are the convolvulus or small field bindweed blooms, their meaning possibly hinting at the humility she\u2019ll feel as she succumbs to the play\u2019s spell and falls in love with Bottom. Her absorption with the natural world around her also speaks of her fascination with transience and mortality, which she, as an immortal being, can never possess.<\/p>\n<p>Often in Victorian art of this genre, the fairy world seems within reach of our own, if we could only be aware of it. In Simmons\u2019s 1870 Hermia and Lysander (opposite page), the mortal protagonists of A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream appear lost in a wood, unaware of the fae folk who surround them. In contrast to the flimsily clad fairies, Hermia\u2019s robes are modest and her hair neatly bound. The couple is so absorbed with each other that Lysander doesn\u2019t notice the fairy riding a mouse-powered chariot by his hand, nor the naked beauty atop the white hare with glowing eyes. Just beyond them, another stunning nude dances in the pollen of the honeysuckle while being fanned with a peacock feather. Any one of those extraordinary vignettes should be enough to catch even the most ardent of lovers\u2019 eye, so either our couple is devoted beyond measure or extremely shortsighted.<\/p>\n<p>Another explanation for our ignorance of the magical world just beyond our fingertips is that we are quite literally unconscious of it. In his 1873 A Scene From \u2018A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u2019 (see pages 30-31), Simmons shows the sleeping figures of Hermia and Titania, watched by the fairies. Around them climb the bindweed flowers, but if the blooms are read as woodbines, they have a narcotic inference. Couple that with the foxgloves present in his other works, and there is a hint of drugging and dreams. As in John Austen Fitzgerald\u2019s The Dream After the Masked Ball, also known as The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of (1864), or his 1858 painting The Nightmare, the Victorians were aware of the presence, welcome or otherwise, of fae folk as they slept. The overt drugging of the figures in A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream may well have chimed with the use, and misuse, of opiates in the 19th century and the hallucinations that could arise. It is easy to believe in the magical world that surrounds you if you must be deeply slumbering for it to manifest. Also, the presence of such light and fleeting beauty when life becomes dark and difficult brings a comfort of its own.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10681&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;]Simmons\u2019s art was embraced by critics and public alike. He was praised in the newspapers for his poetical treatment and cited as a talented and rising star, but his glory was too brief to be of great financial benefit. He died suddenly, at only 51. Such was the shock and sorrow felt in Bristol that a subscription was raised within the artistic world to save his widow and four young children who were left penniless. Despite his brief career and modest number of small canvases, the paintings Simmons left were to join the canon of the fairy genre that brought pinpricks of light to the modern certainties of the 19th century.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes life seems beyond our control and without hope, but take comfort in the fact that just beyond your peripheral vision, a fairy is racing by in a mouse chariot \u2026 and be glad.[\/vc_column_text][vc_cta h2=&#8221;Subscribe!&#8221; txt_align=&#8221;center&#8221; style=&#8221;flat&#8221; color=&#8221;grey&#8221; add_button=&#8221;bottom&#8221; btn_title=&#8221;Subscribe Today!&#8221; btn_style=&#8221;flat&#8221; btn_color=&#8221;mulled-wine&#8221; btn_align=&#8221;center&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; btn_button_block=&#8221;true&#8221; btn_link=&#8221;url:https%3A%2F%2Fenchantedlivingmag.com%2Fcollections%2Fsubscribe|target:_blank|rel:nofollow&#8221;]<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_10544\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10544\" style=\"width: 232px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-dominant-color=\"807761\" data-has-transparency=\"true\" style=\"--dominant-color: #807761;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10544 size-medium has-transparency\" src=\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-24-at-8.30.45\u202fAM-232x300.avif\" alt=\"The Gossamer Issue\" width=\"232\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-24-at-8.30.45\u202fAM-232x300.avif 232w, https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-24-at-8.30.45\u202fAM-791x1024.avif 791w, https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-24-at-8.30.45\u202fAM-768x994.avif 768w, https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-24-at-8.30.45\u202fAM-1187x1536.avif 1187w, https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-24-at-8.30.45\u202fAM-325x420.avif 325w, https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-24-at-8.30.45\u202fAM-696x901.avif 696w, https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-24-at-8.30.45\u202fAM-1068x1382.avif 1068w, https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-24-at-8.30.45\u202fAM.avif 1204w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 232px) 100vw, 232px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10544\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Gossamer Issue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><i>Enchanted Living<\/i><\/em> is a quarterly print magazine that celebrates all things enchanted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><em><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Subscribe now and begin with our Mushroom<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/em><b style=\"font-family: Verdana, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/b><em><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">issue!<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<p>[\/vc_cta]<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_column_text css=\"\"] Feature Image: A Scene From \u2018A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u2019 (1873)Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons [\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=\"\"]When fairy fever struck the Victorians, they never recovered. Many would say thank goodness for that, as this fever created some of the most beautiful art to float gently on the breezes of the 19th century, art that still [...]","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":10679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[83,92],"tags":[3974,2011,360,3772,3971,3975,3723,3968,1621,2980,3970,3973,3972,3969],"class_list":{"0":"post-10678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-creative","9":"tag-19th-century-art","10":"tag-a-midsummer-nights-dream","11":"tag-enchanted-living","12":"tag-fae-folklore","13":"tag-faerie-paintings","14":"tag-fairy-paintings","15":"tag-fantasy-art-history","16":"tag-john-simmons","17":"tag-kirsty-stonell-walker","18":"tag-oberon","19":"tag-shakespeare-art","20":"tag-titania","21":"tag-victorian-artists","22":"tag-victorian-fairy-art"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Fantastical Art of John Simmons &#8211; Enchanted Living Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the ethereal fairy paintings of Victorian artist John Simmons (1823\u20131876), whose delicate visions of Shakespearean fairyland brought enchantment and beauty to the 19th century\u2014and continue to captivate today.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/the-fantastical-art-of-john-simmons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Fantastical Art of John Simmons &#8211; Enchanted Living Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover the ethereal fairy paintings of Victorian artist John Simmons (1823\u20131876), whose delicate visions of Shakespearean fairyland brought enchantment and beauty to the 19th century\u2014and continue to captivate today.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/the-fantastical-art-of-john-simmons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Enchanted Living Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Faerie-Magazine-65239508296\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-28T12:29:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/A-Scene-From-\u2018A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-1873Image-courtesy-Wikimedia-Commons-scaled.avif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1665\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kirsty Stonell Walker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Faeriemagazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Faeriemagazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kirsty Stonell Walker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/the-fantastical-art-of-john-simmons\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/the-fantastical-art-of-john-simmons\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kirsty Stonell Walker\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bc5073bec12d2d574d870105ae316f7f\"},\"headline\":\"The Fantastical Art of John Simmons\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-28T12:29:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/the-fantastical-art-of-john-simmons\/\"},\"wordCount\":1580,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/the-fantastical-art-of-john-simmons\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/A-Scene-From-\u2018A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-1873Image-courtesy-Wikimedia-Commons-scaled.avif\",\"keywords\":[\"19th century art\",\"a midsummer nights dream\",\"enchanted living\",\"fae folklore\",\"faerie paintings\",\"fairy paintings\",\"fantasy art history\",\"John Simmons\",\"Kirsty Stonell Walker\",\"Oberon\",\"Shakespeare art\",\"Titania\",\"Victorian artists\",\"Victorian fairy art\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Art\",\"Creative\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/the-fantastical-art-of-john-simmons\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/the-fantastical-art-of-john-simmons\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enchantedlivingmagazine.com\/the-fantastical-art-of-john-simmons\/\",\"name\":\"The Fantastical Art of John Simmons &#8211; 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