The Fairy Circus 1931

Dorothy Lathrop's “The Fairy Circus” is an illustration of a whimsical gathering, an ink drawing of tiny fairies mingling with enormous animals under a stippled night sky. I can imagine her working with painstaking effort. Imagine the artist bent over the page, dipping her pen into ink, coaxing out the image one tiny dot and line at a time. Look at the scales of the turtle, each one individually rendered, and the furry texture of the squirrel achieved with delicate strokes. I wonder if she ever felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of detail? I love the tension between the minute fairies and the monumental scale of the animals. It makes me think about our own relationship to the natural world, how something so small can feel so powerful. There’s a sense of wonder and a touch of the uncanny, a hint of magic shimmering just beneath the surface.