John Anster Fitzgerald – The Stuff Dreams are Made Of

“Fly to me through this love-lit nightFrom one thousand miles awayAnd come into my sleep…As midnight nears and shadows creepCome into my sleep

Bind my dreams up in your tangled hairFor I am sick at heart, my dearBind my dreams up in your tangled hairFor all the sorrow it will pass, my dear…”

(Nick Cave, Come Into My Sleep)

John Anster Fitzgerald (1819-1906), The Stuff Dreams are Made Of, 1864

John Anster Fitzgerald, mostly self-taught and no stranger to opium dens, was an artist who provided a much needed source of escapism for the gloomy and doomed Victorians through his whimsical paintings filled with fairies, strange looking and often grotesque tiny creatures, half-mythical and half-imaginary, birds, bats and flowers. These paintings, so detailed and vibrant, appear very innocent and childlike at first glance, but their whimsicality was fueled by laudanum and chloral; Victorian drugs of choice. He was also known as the “Fairy Fitzgerald” to his friends because he painted the world of fairies so obsessively, and in my opinion, the most beautifully. I prefer his work over the similar works made by other fairy painters who created at the same time such as Richard Dadd and Sir Joseph Noel Paton.

In “Fairy” Fitzgerald’s paintings, flowers, leaves and mushrooms seem large in comparison with the small fairies who bodies have luminous glow and strange attire. These paintings were really made to be gazed at for a long time, preferably right before bedtime so all these cheerful and surreal scenes can blend into ones dreams just like in the painting bellow called “The Stuff Dreams are Made Of”. The painting shows a beautiful young girl sleeping in her bedroom, but while she is sleeping strange things are going on. The reality of the physical world of her bedroom and the realm of the fairy land are mingling and intertwining, as if a portal to another dimension has just opened. The sleeping girl is dreaming of a meeting with a handsome man and they are holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes. And who knows whether that is her actual beloved or just a man of her dreams… But all of a sudden these strange creatures start crashing her sweet love dream like some uninvited party guests. They are seen in her dream but they are also surrounding her bed and playing all sorts of instruments, but her rosy cheeks and closed eyes speak of undisturbed slumber. Interesting how she is sleeping with a pink flower crown on and even in her dream she is seen wearing it, along with the matching blue coat. These paintings really make me wonder what is going on around my bed while I am asleep? Which strange creatures are walking around my bed and are my dreams taking place there, vividly, hanging in the air of my room like a cloud?

In another painting, “Nightmare”, a similar young Victorian girl is having a nightmare, tossing and turning in her bed all because the strange beings from the fairy lands have visited her sleep, which brings to mind Fusseli’s The Nightmare painted in times when the Gothic wave swept European art in the last quarter of eighteenth century. Dreams and reality mingle in these artworks and the fantasy finds a way to enter the everyday life, no matter how narrow the path for dream may be. These dream-works are often seen as portrayals of his laudanum-induced hallucinations and they just might be that, but how fun to imagine that these things are going on while we are asleep. These paintings are a perfect fuel for daydreaming so tune in to these vibrant sparkling colours and drop out of the boring real world.

John Anster Fitzgerald (1819-1906), Nightmare, c 1860s