Fairy fornication

Not long ago I was given a book about fairies. Most of the pictures were cute, if not downright twee; but when I took a closer look at this one, I realized it was a little...different.

First, the credits: the artist is Sir Joseph Noel-Paton, and the title of the piece is The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania (though I must say, they don't look particularly quarrelsome to me. I guess they're just getting started).

Now at first glance, this looks like a typically bloodless, idealized Victorian Era painting. At second glance, you might notice Titania has a lovely figure and Oberon's probably dangling out of his miniskirt. But at third glance, you start to notice the really interesting stuff.  The rest of the fairies in the painting are up to all kinds of naughtiness. Queen Victoria would not approve.

Here are some crops I've taken from the image above, which was the largest version of the painting that I could find online. Look carefully and you'll see...

• a lesbian couple
• a gay male couple (or possibly a trio - it's hard to make out the sex of the third fairy and how s/he is involved)
• a naked Disney princess on acid
• a fattened-up Gollum
• an orgy involving an owl
• a transvestite with a lady friend
• strange goings-on with bowls
• spider worship
• lizard erotica
• a strangely (and to my mind, erotically) obscured face
• a famously horny god
• and, if you look really closely, a figure oddly reminiscent of this Beksinski crawler.

Speaking of Beksinski, I've found a great new site with his artwork, so expect a post on that very soon - probably this week, unless I find a bunch of other more interesting stuff between now and then.