Comparing Douglas Harvey's Painting 'Oberon And The Mermaid'

Oberon and the Mermaid Douglas Harvey’s painting titled Oberon and the Mermaid illustrates a scene from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which Oberon sits on a promontory in the middle of the ocean. As Oberon watches a mermaid riding a dolphin, Cupid shoots one of his arrow’s at a maiden, but misses and hits a small white flower, causing it to turn purple and become known as “Love In Idleness”, as the powers from cupid’s arrow were transferred to the flower. It is plausible that Harvey chose to paint this scene because without it, the whole play would have never happened, since Puck wouldn’t have had the flower to enchant the lovers with. Douglas Harvey’s depiction of the scene between Oberon and the mermaid from A Midsummer

Douglas Harvey achieves these effects by using color contrast, lighting, body language, and placement of subjects in the painting. In Oberon and the Mermaid, Douglas Harvey uses the elements of color, shading, and placement to reiterate the fact that the scene takes place in the fantastical world, to frame the main focus, and to stay true to the descriptions in the play. The colors, such as the gold hue used to color the mermaid and stars, used by Harvey in the painting add to the theme of magic in the scene. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon recalls that while he was watching the mermaid, he spotted Cupid aiming his bow at a young maiden: “Cupid, all arm'd; a certain aim he took / At a fair vestal, throned by the west” (II.i.???). Cupid misses the maiden and hits a flower instead, which turns into “Love In Idleness”, and has the power to make people fall in love like Cupid’s arrows. Yet, in Harvey’s painting, the maiden can barely be seen in the middle-left quadrant of the painting. The colors and shading Harvey used likely represent the disconnect and separation between the human and fantastical world. The maiden’s presence is also not of the most importance in the scene, since Cupid’s arrow doesn’t hit her. The fairy-like figures in the middle are colored

He does this because Cupid is the true focus of the painting, and he would be hard to spot without the use of a triangle. Harvey didn’t make Cupid the focal point because as explained earlier, the mermaids needed to be centered to provide a distraction to both Puck and the reader, possibly alluding to the fact that Puck is much like the viewer, as he didn’t see the important things first. The gaze of Oberon is also used to draw the observer up to Cupid, even though he is placed off to the side. Although Douglas Harvey stayed true to the play thus far, Oberon’s body language contrasts with the descriptions given in A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord” (II.i.65). This quote from Oberon is to Titania, after she refuses to give him the changeling boy. Oberon reminds Titania that he is her ruler and husband, and that she should obey him, showing his confidence. Yet, in Oberon and the Mermaid, Oberon’s body language is closed off, and suggests he is less than confident. Douglas Harvey likely portrayed Oberon in this way in order to not distract from the rest of the painting. Contrasting with Oberon, the mermaid’s body language is very open and poised. This not only makes the mermaid a focal point at the center of a painting, but demonstrates her amount of power that she has