Venus and the Cat 1912

Arthur Rackham made "Venus and the Cat" as an illustration, and look how he lets the ink do its thing. See how the colours bleed into each other, creating a watercolour wash? I imagine him in his studio, hunched over the paper, obsessing over the details, line by line. I bet he layered the colours bit by bit, letting each dry before adding the next. Just look at those roses on the bedspread, each petal is so carefully rendered. And that little mouse! Was he smiling when he added it? I would have been. This piece has the kind of touch that whispers of old stories and fairy tales, like a dream you almost remember. There's a quality to it, a kind of storytelling only Rackham could pull off. You can feel a shared artistic language of line and storytelling passed down from illustrators like Aubrey Beardsley. Artists are always in conversation across time, remixing and reinterpreting ideas, and this is what keeps art alive, right?