Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales by Mykola Murashko

Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales 1873

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Copyright: Public domain

Mykola Murashko’s illustration for Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales seems to have been made using etching, a printmaking technique dating back to the Middle Ages. An image is scratched into a prepared metal plate, inked, and then printed onto paper. The linear quality of the image, and the gradations of light and shadow achieved through hatching, depend entirely on the artist’s hand. The labor involved in creating this print, and others like it, reflects the industrialization of the publishing industry in the 19th century. New technologies allowed books to be printed more cheaply, and images were an important element in making them appealing to a wide audience. Here, the artist captures both the physical reality of a rustic interior and the fantastical apparition of men battling in the air. As a crafted object made for mass consumption, this print reveals the complicated social dynamics of the art world at that time. It challenges the traditional distinctions between high art and craft.

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