73 At Jennie Richee Escape by Their Help 

Here we see Henry Darger's '73 At Jennie Richee Escape by Their Help,' an undated watercolor, pencil, and collage work on paper. The work teems with a pale green landscape where a troupe of young girls engages with humanoid figures of ambiguous intent. Darger employs a composition that disrupts conventional perspective. The figures appear both flat and strangely dimensional, challenging fixed notions of space. Note the contrast between the delicate watercolor washes and the bold, graphic lines that define the characters, creating a visual tension. The tension can also be seen in the juxtaposition of innocence and otherness in the depiction of childhood. The formal strategy here is to challenge the traditional notions of innocence and otherness by using color, line, form, and space. This allows Darger to explore how these elements destabilize established categories of meaning. The result invites ongoing interpretation and re-interpretation.