The Lion, Jupiter, and the Elephant 1912

Arthur Rackham rendered The Lion, Jupiter, and the Elephant with delicate lines and a muted palette. I’m imagining him hunched over his drawing board, squinting through his glasses, maybe dipping his pen in ink, then scratching away at the paper. The elephant is immense, but the lines are so gentle, it feels like it could float away. The lion, on the other hand, seems to have a mischievous glint in its eye. Rackham's made him a bit scruffy around the edges, a charming contrast to the elephant's smooth grandeur. I wonder if Rackham was thinking about Aesop's fables when he made this? That elephant’s trunk has such a lovely curve to it, and the way it almost touches the lion is very tender. The sky is hazy, the trees are distant silhouettes, but that interaction between the two figures is so intimate. In the end, isn't art just about that, the conversations between forms, lines, and stories?