Sleeping Beauty

This illustration brings to life a scene from Sleeping Beauty, in which Crane figures the valiant Prince in a state of fervour at the sight of his comotosed Beauty. Crane published a variation of this illustration in his rendition of the Brother Grimm’s Household Stories (1882), and it was with this that he entered his celebrated career as a children’s book illustrator. This illustration’s highly decorative qualities - its patterned curtains, window frames and bedside table - recall Crane’s Japanese and Continental influences, exemplifying his wide-spread artistic grasp and understanding of linework and decoration. Yet, the illustration is more memorable for its emotive faculties; Crane throws off Beauty’s pallid skin and pale bed sheets with her and the Prince’s shared orange hair and clothing. This amber through-line creates a sense of unity and familiarity that just so hints at their budding romance. This pays into Beauty’s Pre-Raphaelite tropes, as Crane uses her soft, rounded features and down tilted expression as qualities which intensify the Prince’s feelings towards her, her image further resonates with the work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones. The illustration’s predominating sunny blues and yellows suggest a further vitality, and foreshadow the tale’s happy ending. With this, Crane makes us sit in anticipation of the doves - above Beauty’s head and a symbol of her inertia - being freed. This illustration is a significant piece within Crane’s prolific oeuvre; a profitable example of his prestigious literary sentimentalities. Alongside this ode to the Brothers Grimm are his illustrated editions of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene (1894–1896), and The Happy Prince and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde (1888).