Puck
- Artist: Thomas Woolner
- Date: 1845–7
- Medium: Plaster
- Dimensions: object: 498 x 355 x 280 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is “Puck” by Thomas Woolner. The little plaster figure captures a suspended moment from Shakespeare’s *A Midsummer Night’s Dream*: Puck, the mischievous fairy, alights on a mushroom to rescue a sleeping frog from an approaching snake. Woolner freezes that instant just before the frog leaps and the snake strikes—an elegant snapshot of motion.
The scale is modest: about 50 cm long and 35 cm high, but its detail is remarkable. Woolner’s attention to naturalism shows in the textured mushroom caps, the subtle musculature of Puck’s limbs, and the tiny ears he modeled after vestigial tips on human ears. The work was first exhibited at the British Institution in 1847 and later appeared in a 2012–2014 Pre‑Raphaelites show.
Woolner, a member of the early Pre‑Raphaelites Brotherhood, often drew from literature and myth; “Puck” exemplifies this practice, placing a literary character into sculptural form. The piece is part of a broader Victorian fascination with fairies—an interest that also produced many painted sprites of the period.
The sculpture’s success lies in its lively composition: Puck’s mischievous smile, the poised snake, and the frog’s poised leap all combine to give the figure an energetic, almost comic quality. The work remains a charming snapshot of mid‑nineteenth‑century sculpture at the intersection of art and theatre.
See it in person
Puck is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
