Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet, a timeless and heart-breaking love story by Shakespeare is captured in this painting. It illustrates a window scene from Shakespeare's story. Romeo and Juliet are sharing a kiss, their last kiss.

Romeo is seated on a window, one leg inside the house the other hanging outside the window which is overlooking a city. A huge risk to Romeo, risking a disastrous fall to steal a kiss. This demonstrates how brave in love he is. Cloaked in a red coat, a color of love, Romeo is passionately kissing Juliet, holding her tight and close with a grab around Juliet's back. Juliet is in a white nightdress, her arms around Romeo's neck. There are pots with ornamental plants growing next to the couple. The window curtain, in shades of red, is drawn open. An impression of Juliet's house is depicted by the curtain and plants.

This painting presents an intense, passionate, love theme. It evokes a longing feeling of burning desires. A love that consumes like fire. It tells the tale of eternal love, despite Romeo and Juliet tragically dying, their love transcended. And now, the Romeo and Juliet story is engraved in the realm of romance. The story is still fresh and new like it just happened today. The art piece was painted in 1844 by Frank Dicksee, a romanticist painter. The medium of the painting is oil on canvas with measurements of H 171 x W 118 cm, located at the Southampton City Art Gallery in the UK.

There are other works by Dicksee, an illustrator who is famous for portraits. He painted portraits of women in fashion. This made a mark in his life. "Beatrice" is one of Dicksee's portraits painted in 1888 that captures an image of a fashionable woman with blonde hair and a dazzling gaze. "Hesperia", painted in 1901, is a portrait of a woman in a fancy dress of the old times, expression fashion. These two are among portraits of fashionable women illustrated by Dicksee. His influence in art came from his father Thomas Dicksee, who taught him how to paint at a tender age together with his sister. One of his paintings "the funeral of the Vikings" that depicts a dramatic Viking funeral was used by a Swedish band "Bathory" as cover art for their album "Hammerheart" in 1990. An inspiration drawn from Frank Dicksee's artworks.