Illustration for Alexander Pushkin's 'Fairytale of the Tsar Saltan' 1937

Here's an illustration by Ivan Bilibin for Alexander Pushkin's 'Fairytale of the Tsar Saltan', rendered in careful black ink. It's 1937, and I can imagine him sitting at a desk, patiently filling the page with intricate details. I feel for Bilibin making this picture – the old tsar eavesdropping, pressing his ear against the wall. The composition, the Tsar’s stance – everything pulls you into the narrative, into the act of overhearing. Look at the fine lines, the way they define the folds of the Tsar’s robe, the icicles hanging from the eaves. There’s a real sense of texture, of weight, in those lines. And then there are the patterns! Zigzags and checkerboards, tiny circles, a whole world of motifs packed into every inch of the Tsar’s garments. This piece feels like a conversation with earlier illustrators and printmakers, like Dürer, but with a Russian sensibility. Artists are always drawing on each other, creating a lineage through line and form, gesture and feeling. It’s a reminder that art is always in dialogue, always evolving through exchange.