Fairies and sprites dance amid twinkling lights in an enchanted clearing in Edward Robert Hughes’ luminous “Midsummer Eve.” Hughes (1849 – 1914), a British Pre-Raphaelite artist, meticulous depicts a summer solstice celebration in when fairies and witches were thought to freely roam and love and magic were most potent. Assistant to William Holman Hunt, he helped the elderly artist complete several paintings when his eyesight began failing, later becoming a member of the Royal Academy and Royal Watercolor Society where he painted themes from Italian literature, filled with blues, golds, gossamer fabrics, and mysticism.