Dream Idyll (A Valkyrie)
Artist: Edward Robert Hughes (British, 1851–1914)
Date: c. 1902
Medium: Gouache and pastel on stretched paper
Collection: Private Collection
Description
Against an indigo sky, a nubile rider grasps the black wings of a flying steed, her body gleaming in the moonlight, her golden tresses let loose in the wind as she peers down at the stony structures of a city built along a river many miles below. Is this a goddess of antiquity, a fairy, a captured princess? This allusive, seductive, strange, Symbolist scene by Edward Robert Hughes immediately captivated audiences upon its 1902 exhibition at the London's Royal Watercolor Society. As The Builder's exhibition review exclaimed, "among the larger works of the year is one of importance, both in style and execution. It represents a kind of work seldom undertaken in water-colour and seldom seen at… the Society. This is Mr. E. R. Hughes' large and striking picture entitled 'A Dream Idyll'" (The Builder, p. 544).
