Midsummer Eve 1908

Edward Robert Hughes painted *Midsummer Eve* with oils, and the title makes me think of Shakespeare, so maybe some theatre is involved. Look at that colour palette, it's so tonal - a dance of golds, greens and browns. The whole thing is about surface, it feels glazed and varnished, in a way that conceals the hand of the artist; there are no visible brushstrokes. I’m really drawn to the dress. Its got these intricate patterns of gold and brown that make the fabric come alive, like it’s woven from moonlight. There's a real contrast between the detail on the dress and the more gestural, atmospheric rendering of the forest in the background. It reminds me of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, with their attention to detail and focus on beauty, but there's something about this painting that feels darker. Hughes invites us into a world of dreams, where the boundary between reality and fantasy blurs. It evokes a feeling of mystery and wonder, and that feeling of an ongoing dialogue between art and the imagination.