[FAIRY PAINTING] THUS TITANIA SLEEPS [ORIGINAL WATERCOLOUR]

[Original artwork]., 1937.. Original ink and watercolour drawing on card depicting Titania from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream asleep surrounded by three standing fairies, with other fairy/pixie figures looking on, set within a garden of flowers. Signed, titled, and dated by the artist to the foot. The image measuring 37 x 26cm. Mounted but unframed (50.5 x 38cm including the mount). There is a light ink splash to the centre of the image (affecting the central fairy), otherwise condition is very good. A beautiful, skilfully-executed fairy painting showing the stylistic influence of Edwardian 'Golden Age' illustrators such as Arthur Rackham, by the artist, miniaturist and calligrapher Enid Sybil Mills (1901-1985).

Mills studied at St Martin's School of Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts, where her teachers included Walter Bayes and Bernard Meninsky. She exhibited at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, the Royal Watercolour Society, and the Royal Miniature Society, of which she was elected a member in 1961.