When Puss saw the rats and mice she didn’t wait to be told 1927

Editor: This is "When Puss Saw the Rats and Mice She Didn’t Wait to Be Told" by Arthur Rackham, a watercolor from 1927. The scene is so detailed and theatrical. It's almost claustrophobic with all the figures and…stuff. What’s your take on it? Curator: Notice how the composition directs our gaze downwards, towards the proliferation of mice, richly rendered in watercolor. Rackham's process, particularly the build-up of transparent layers, reveals a keen interest in the materiality of paint itself. Consider how these "lowly" creatures dominate the foreground, upsetting a traditional hierarchy that would privilege the human figures. What implications does this have, do you think? Editor: So you are saying it reverses high and low? Instead of focusing on the seated figures with the turbans, we're drawn to the mice, the cat and the scattered feast materials? It makes the elegant figures almost secondary... Curator: Precisely. Look closely at how Rackham uses watercolor bleed to suggest the teeming, almost overwhelming presence of these creatures. It’s also key to remember the Arts and Crafts movement which elevated the "decorative" arts, blurring the lines between fine art and illustration, challenging the status quo of artistic labor. The making is just as important, if not more, than the subject. Editor: I never thought about it that way. So, it's less about the narrative and more about… Rackham using his materials to disrupt our expectations of importance in the art world? Curator: Absolutely! By foregrounding the traditionally 'lesser' elements of the composition and the very process of their creation, Rackham cleverly comments on artistic value itself. What starts as seemingly ‘naive’ art becomes deeply subversive. Editor: Wow, I'm going to look at illustration, and even the Arts and Crafts Movement differently now. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure. Examining the materiality helps uncover so many latent narratives embedded within.