Midsummer Eve, c.1908

Edward Robert Hughes was a gifted artist whose perfectionism and ambitious techniques helped him to render studies that were good enough for exhibition. A member of the Royal Academy Schools and Royal Watercolor Society, Hughes (1849 – 1914) was a Pre-Raphaelite whose work drew upon Italian literature and Shakespearean themes, was filled with rich blues, gleaming golds, diaphanous fabrics, and mysticism. Hughes was also renowned for his lifelike nudes, which had strong erotic undertones. He was an assistant to renowned painter William Holman Hunt, and helped the elderly artist complete several paintings when his eyesight began failing.