In contrast to his dramatic works, which were a frequent source of inspiration to artists, particularly during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Shakespeare's sonnets have rarely been depicted in art. This painting, from Sonnet 154, is one of the few exceptions. Cupid, the god of erotic love, sleeps in a woodland glade, unaware that a nymph is stealing his quiver of powerful arrows:

The little Love-god, lying once asleep,
Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,
Whilst many nymphs that vowed haste life to keep
Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand
The fairest votary took up that fire
Which many legions of true hearts had warm'd;
And so the general of hot desire
Was sleeping by a virgin hand disarm'd…
(lines 1-8)

The two key figures in the narrative are centrally positioned in the composition with the arrows lying between them, encircled by 'tripping' nymphs.

This picture was commissioned as a pendant to Una Among the Fauns and Wood Nymphs, painted a year earlier. The Queen had intended it to be a Christmas present for Prince Albert in 1848, but progress was slow and in September she was informed by the artist that it would instead be ready in time for the 1849 summer exhibition at the Royal Academy (RA VIC/ ADD C4/91). In reply the Queen insisted that since the picture was now intended as a surprise for Prince Albert's birthday in August 1849 it could not be shown at the Academy. In December 1849 Frost inspected the picture at Osborne and probably made some final changes which had not been possible before the August deadline.

Besides Una Among the Fauns and the Wood Nymphs Queen Victoria purchased one more picture by Frost, L'Allegro. As the Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Thomas Uwins noted, the three paintings together had 'their origin from the three great poets of England. Spenser, Milton and Shakespeare' (R.A VIC/ ADD C4/116).

Text adapted from Victoria and Albert: Art & Love, London, 2010

Signed and dated: W.E. FROST. A.R.A. 1850.