Titania streckt dem indischen Knaben ihre Arme entgegen; daneben sterbende Kindesmutter und ein Segelschiff c. 1867

This is a pencil drawing by Victor Müller, depicting a scene inspired by Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Müller, a German artist born in 1830, lived in a time of growing colonial expansion, which might explain why he chose this particular scene from the play. Look closely and you'll see Titania reaching out to the Indian boy, while nearby, a dying mother lies next to a ship. This work becomes a potent image of cross-cultural encounter, but also one fraught with the pain of loss and the shadow of colonialism. Titania’s desire for the Indian boy speaks to both a yearning for the exotic and a desire to possess what is perceived as "other". Victor Müller here doesn’t just illustrate a story, but also hints at the complex, and often troubling, relationships between different worlds. It asks us to reflect on the emotional and ethical dimensions of cultural exchange.