‘Well!’ she chuckled, ‘I am in luck!’ 1927

Arthur Rackham conjured this illustration with ink and watercolor, and it feels like a dream on paper. The way he teases out these spidery lines, especially in the beastie looming over the cottage, feels so intuitive. Look at that creature’s inky mass. It's like Rackham let the ink pool and bloom, then coaxed it into a figure with a few strategic strokes. The color palette is all muted earth tones, but with these pops of crimson in the brickwork and the subtlest wash of blues and violets in the sky, so good! It gives the whole scene this otherworldly glow. The old woman looks like she is really having a good time, and I can't help but think about Paula Rego. Both Rego and Rackham really knew how to use their art to give fairytales a slightly subversive tone.