Wood
Gnome and Squirrel
circa early 1900s
Are we looking
through a lense? Our perspective is narrowed and focused on the central part of
the scene where the bark of the branch is clearest, as are the warm tufts of
orange squirrel hair and the scrawny fingers and ferocious white
coif of the little man, giving us the sense that we are huge in comparison to these two creatures
over whose squabble we loom. The details, however minimal, are well-drawn.
They tell us that the artist was skilled in executing anatomy no matter how
small the scale or how playful and comical (as this picture is) the subject. He
and Arthur Rackham share the same foggy depiction of colour and the same
motionless animation of fantasy-based figures, each bringing to life a world
that undoubtedly catches the attention of both children and adults.
The watercolour is
odd, though: either it was never completed during the artist's lifetime or, as
already noted, it is meant to appear slightly out of focus. Surely the dense
green wall of foliage has faded nevertheless due to constant handling without
protective gloves (as natural hand oil tends to eat away or dissolve
less-durable media as watercolours), but this is probably not the sole reason
for its fading: the picture's edges are too evenly paled all round. However,
having once sold for nearly 1'000 Euros the fading clearly does not
affect the picture's evident charm - nor does it seem to interrupt the
creatures' 'whose-nut-is-whose?' argument.
