The Hare and the Tortoise 1912

Arthur Rackham made this whimsical scene with ink and watercolors, and you can almost feel him there, carefully laying down each line. It’s a pretty classic fable, and here Rackham’s created this funny, slightly unsettling cast of characters. I’m thinking about how the animals are painted – the soft, controlled washes of color, the crisp outlines. It's like he's building up a whole world, one delicate layer at a time. Look at the hare’s posture, how he gestures at the tortoise, brimming with arrogance. There’s something both nostalgic and edgy about Rackham’s style. I wonder, was he looking back to earlier illustrators or imagining something entirely new? It’s this kind of exchange, this visual conversation across time that keeps art alive and kicking. It invites us to reimagine these stories again and again.