Puck and Fairies, from A Midsummer Night's Dream

A gathering of fairies spills across a shadowy woodland floor, lit as if by moonlight in this scene drawn from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." At the heart of the tangle sits Puck, the play's famous trickster, surrounded by a crowd of tiny spirits busy with their own small mischief. A large horned figure looms in the upper corner with a wide grin, while pale sleeping forms rest below on the mossy ground. Joseph Noel Paton, a Scottish painter working in the 1800s, made a name for himself with these crowded fairy scenes, a subject that Victorian audiences absolutely adored.

Warm earthy browns dominate the picture, with flashes of pink and white on the figures that draw your eye to the center of all the activity. The dark surrounding forest almost swallows the little creatures, so half the fun is picking out the faces hiding in the gloom. Paton returned to this play more than once, and his love for packing every inch with tiny details and twisting leaves gives the whole thing a busy, dreamlike feel. The painting captures a very Victorian delight in folklore and magic, the kind of imaginary world that only wakes up after dark.