The Son made a circle, and his Father and he took their places within it, and the little black Mannikin appeared 

Arthur Rackham's pen, ink and watercolour illustration presents us with a composition that's both enchanting and unsettling. The eye is drawn to the foreground, where the pale, sandy tones contrast with the darker figures of the father, son, and mannikin. Rackham’s image operates through a dialectic of familiar archetypes and unsettling disruptions. The father and son are drawn in a classical style, and their placement creates a natural focal point, but the strange mannikin, rendered with exaggerated features, destabilizes this harmony. The artist seems to use the fairy tale genre to explore themes of alienation and the uncanny. The seemingly innocent imagery is subverted by the grotesque figure, drawing from a deep well of cultural anxieties and primitive impulses. The circle, an archetypal symbol of unity, is undone by the otherness of the creature. Rackham's illustration doesn't just tell a story; it serves as a space to negotiate the tensions between order and chaos.