In an utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected. Charles Dickens The golden age of fairy painting lasted between 1840-1870 when fairies found expression in most of the Victorian arts - paintings, illustration, literature, theatre, ballet and music. The Victorians wanted desperately to believe in fairies because they represented a way to escape the intolerable reality of living in an unromantic, materialistic and scientific age. Fairy painting had a strong literary background. The books of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen perfected the Victorian consciousness. Shakespeare was an even more important source in particular with The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Another influence was the Victorian obsession with the supernatural, spiritualism and the unseen world.