Midsummer Time

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” 
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hughes's Midsummer Eve, ca. 1908

Edward Robert Hughes (1851–1914) was an English painter who worked in a style influenced by Pre-Raphaelitism and Aestheticism. Some of his best known works are Midsummer Eve and Night With Her Train of Stars. Hughes was the nephew of Arthur Hughes and studio assistant to William Holman Hunt. He often used watercolour/gouache. He was elected ARWS in 1891, and chose as his diploma work for election to full membership a mystical piece inspired by a verse by Christina Rossetti's "Amor Mundi". He experimented with ambitious techniques and was a perfectionist; he did numerous studies for many of his paintings, some of which turned out to be good enough for exhibition.

He died on 23 April 1914 at his cottage (no. 3 Romeland) in St. Albans, Hertfordshire.

(text from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Robert_Hughes)

Edward Robert Hughes (Londra, 5 novembre 1851 – St Albans, 23 aprile 1914) è stato un pittore inglese.

Hughes nacque a Londra da una famiglia borghese. Suo zio era il pittore Arthur Hughes. Dopo i primi studi aderì alla concezione pittorica dei Preraffaelliti e a quella dell'Estetismo. Hughes usava molto anche l'acquarello e la tempera, ottenendo effetti spesso eccezionali. Tra i suoi capolavori Midsummer Eve and The Lady of Shalott.

Fu un autentico perfezionista, un vero e proprio cultore della bellezza assoluta che non si stancava mai di perseguire anche attraverso la ricerca di nuove ed ambiziose tecniche. Nel 1891 fu eletto membro della Royal Watercolour Society.

Morì nel suo cottage di St Albans nello Hertfordshire, il 23 aprile del 1914, poco dopo un intervento chirurgico.

(tratto da http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Robert_Hughes)