Shakespeare/Sommernachtstraum
1964
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
etching
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1980.45.1211
Art Historical Context
Imre Reiner’s 1964 etching portfolio *Shakespeare/Sommernachtstraum* offers a striking visual response William Shakespeare’s beloved comedy *A Midsummer Night’s Dream*. Created more than three centuries after the play, the work bridges literary tradition with mid-twentieth-century print. As part of the Rosenwald Collection at the National Gallery of Art, the portfolio exemplifies how classic texts continued to inspire artists long after their original performances. Reiner, a Hungarian-born graphic artist, employed the etching process to produce finely detailed lines and tonal contrasts well s...
About the Artist
Imre Reiner
**Imre Reiner** (1900–1987) was a Hungarian-born Swiss painter, graphic artist, typographer, and master illustrator whose multifaceted career bridged sculpture, experimental typography, and exquisite wood engravings. Born on August 18, 1900, in Versec (now Vršac, Serbia) to a Jewish family—his father a sculptor and stone carver who apprenticed him young—Reiner began formal studies at age 15 in scu...