If Orpheus first produced the waltz 1911

Arthur Rackham made this illustration of Orpheus, sometime between 1900 and 1930, with pen and ink, probably with watercolour. The cross hatching suggests a long, slow process of building up tone. Look at Orpheus himself, with that red hat. The fine lines making up his face, the folds of his clothes, the way his hands hold the flute. There's a real intensity there, and you can feel the weight of the line in places. It's like Rackham is carving the image into the page, and the sepia wash adds to that ancient, archaic feeling. The scene shows figures of classical mythology dancing to Orpheus' music in a forest, and the dogs in the foreground tumbling over each other. This is very much in the style of illustrators like Aubrey Beardsley, who went in for similar dreamlike compositions and really brought that art nouveau sensibility to book illustration. There is no single way to view art. Art is an ongoing conversation across time.