Edward Robert Hughes Prints – Winged Figures, Night & Imagination
Edward Robert Hughes prints give imagined bodies a setting of birds, clouds and luminous night colour. Wings and flowing hair extend the figures’ movement into the surrounding space. Explore these visions alongside mythological art, figurative prints and Odilon Redon, comparing brightly scattered detail with more concentrated nocturnal forms.
A winged figure among birds and colour
Wings of the Morning carries the pale body across a broad blue and violet landscape, with small birds filling the air above and around it. Warm marks gather towards the upper sky. The raised arm and spreading wings connect the central figure to the much larger field of flight and light.
A bowed figure within a luminous crescent
The Weary Moon gathers the body into a curved pale form against a deep blue field dotted with small lights. Long golden cloud bands cross the image. The narrow format and repeated curves keep the imagined figure closely linked to the surrounding crescent and drifting atmosphere.
A rider above a distant clouded landscape
Dream Idyll, A Valkyrie places the figure against the large dark wing of the flying mount, with light hair streaming outward. The land and cloud below remain much smaller and more distant. This strong difference of scale makes the airborne group dominate the tall composition without enclosing it in architecture.
Related artists and collections
Compare dreamlike subjects in Odilon Redon, allegorical bodies in George Frederic Watts and decorative myth in Walter Crane. Further mythological prints follows the imagined flight, while figure painting extends the different ways a body can occupy open or symbolic space.
Read more in our guide to William Blake’s imaginative art.