A grand pas de deux performed in the very first style by these two. 1911

Arthur Rackham sketched this dramatic scene of a demonic figure seemingly kidnapping a noble woman with graphite. I can almost imagine him hunched over the paper, hatching lines to create depth and movement. The swirling clouds in the background – were those an afterthought? Or did they come first? You can see the hand of the artist in the nervous energy of the lines, especially around the face of the woman. Rackham was an experienced artist by the time he made this, so I bet he found immense pleasure in drawing such a character, a gleeful sadist. But, in that moment of creation, perhaps he was also wrestling with those same dark impulses himself. Think of Goya's etchings. Was he thinking of him? All artists are in conversation with each other, across time.