Ring a ring o’ roses. 1912

Curator: Look at this evocative scene—a drawing from 1912 by Arthur Rackham titled, "Ring a ring o’ roses." He used pencil, watercolour, and coloured pencil to create this work. Editor: Well, hello nostalgia! It’s all powdered sunlight and whisper-thin lines. Immediately, I’m hit with this feeling of ephemeral joy, but also... an underlying melancholy. Curator: Melancholy? Fascinating. To me, Rackham’s choice to illustrate a nursery rhyme carries echoes of historical anxieties. "Ring a ring o’ roses" is often associated with the Great Plague. The rosy rash, the sneezing...the falling down! Editor: Oh wow. You’ve just dropped a lead balloon into my reverie. Plague imagery… I was just enjoying the frolicking innocence! But I see what you mean. The child collapsed on the ground is really suggestive. Maybe it is an allegory about the precarity of life. Rackham loved to subtly destabilize our sense of reality; the artifice of beauty clashing with the absurdity or the terror that lies beneath the surface. Curator: Exactly. It becomes a dance between innocence and impending doom, seen through the symbolism embedded within something seemingly simple. Observe the carefully rendered, yet slightly unsettling expressions of the children. They appear frozen mid-laugh. Editor: The color palette is certainly communicating something; these pastel hues mixed with stark blacks creates a sense of unease. They are so pale as to appear corpselike. There is this interesting contrast with the darkness too; these children are not merely playing; their laughter may serve as a sort of defiance in the face of a tragic end. Curator: And this specific staging underscores my point, it reveals a cultural memory about something more sinister, even while playing the ring game—a premonition if you will. Rackham masterfully hints at something dark within something outwardly charming. Editor: I am utterly changed. The artist subverts expectation with a deeper meditation. Curator: Art has many layers, don't you think? Editor: Indeed, a reminder that shadows always accompany light.