JOHN LAWLOR (BRITISH, 1820-1901)

The subject could be Titania, queen of the fairies, from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream which was exhibited by Lawlor in marble at the Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition in 1861 and priced at £200. Seated bashfully on a rock, her robe around her, the moment depicted could be when Titania, under Oberon's spell, awakes and fails in love with the 'ass-head' Bottom, exclaiming 'What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?'.