A grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life 

Arthur Rackham made this pen and ink drawing, "A grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life," most likely in the first decades of the 20th century, when he was at the height of his popularity as a book illustrator. Rackham specialised in illustrating books for children that blended gothic and romantic sensibilities. Here, his anthropomorphic rendering of the tree, in dark flowing lines, recalls the spirit of the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement. The fairy tales that Rackham illustrated provided an escape from the grim realities of urban life, the strictures of industrial capitalism and the moral codes of the Victorian era. Rackham was an early member of the Arts and Crafts movement which sought to critique the manufacturing system. To fully understand the image and its cultural significance, historians might consult publications from The Folklore Society, or study the Victorian avant-garde and its relationship to children's literature. As this image reminds us, art can be an important tool to analyse prevailing ideas about society.