A Scene from 'Undine'

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The subject is based on a moment in a romantic German novel entitled Undine, written by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, which was first translated into English in 1818 and became almost as popular with artists in England as Goethe's Faust. The incident painted by Maclise occurs in chapter IX, where the young knight, Huldbrand, accompanies his bride, Undine, back home through the forest. The priest, Father Heilmann, who has just performed the marriage ceremony, follows behind and is visible beneath the branch of the tree.

About the Artist

Daniel Maclise

1806 – 1870

Irish painter and caricaturist, active in London from 1827. An outstanding draughtsman, Maclise became the leading history painter of his period, his greatest works being two enormous murals in the House of Lords on The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher at Waterloo (completed 1861) and The Death of Nelson at Trafalgar (completed 1865). They were done in the water-glass technique and are poorly preserved (a sketch for the Nelson in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool gives an idea of the original colouring), but they are powerful works - fully coherent in spite of the huge numbers of figures involved - and they remain the most stirring examples of his heroic powers of design. Maclise was handsome, charming, and popular with fellow artists. Grandiose history painting was only one side to his talent, however, for he also excelled as a caricaturist, and is particularly noted for a series of character portraits of literary men and women. There are several examples of his conventional portraits in the National Portrait Gallery, London, including a well-known one of his close friend Charles Dickens (1839).

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