‘Mopsa The Fairy’ by Jean Ingelow 1920

Dorothy Lathrop’s illustration for ‘Mopsa The Fairy’ invites us into a monochrome world of make-believe. Look at how she’s used simple black ink to conjure up a whole enchanted scene of gathering fairies beneath toadstools. You can almost feel the artist’s hand as she carefully plots a series of lines, one next to the other, sometimes thick and sometimes thin, to build a scene of both light and shadow. I imagine she delights in describing the wings of the pixie-like creatures, as well as the textures of the dotted ground. How much fun would it have been to draw the striations on the underside of those huge toadstools? There is a touch of Aubrey Beardsley in this work. The two artists share an interest in the decorative and illustrative. Looking at this picture I am reminded that every artist is in conversation with those from the past and, that, in a way, we are all fairies gathering inspiration from one another.