The Pool of Tears 

Arthur Rackham created "The Pool of Tears" as an illustration for Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." Rackham, working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, inhabited a world steeped in Victorian sensibilities, with their emphasis on childhood innocence and morality. Yet, he was also part of the burgeoning Art Nouveau movement, which embraced the fantastical and the decorative. In "The Pool of Tears," we see a child, Alice, literally afloat in her own emotions. Surrounded by a menagerie of animals, she appears both vulnerable and strangely composed. How does Rackham use this image to speak to the trials and tribulations of girlhood, that moment when one's own emotional landscape can feel overwhelming? The artwork invites us to consider the experience of childhood, its fluidity, and the way children navigate the complex emotions that threaten to engulf them.