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The Elves and The Shoemaker
George Cruikshank
Etching that "carefully follow[s] the originals drawn by Cruikshank"
17.6 cm high by 12.5 cm wide (6 ⅞ by 4 ⅜ inches)
German Popular Stories (1823), Vol. I, p. 97.
Courtesy of the John Hay Library, Brown University
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Scanned image and text by Siobhan Lam.
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The Elves and The Shoemaker. The evident joy of the elves, who are trying on their new clothes, and of the shoemaker and his wife animates this most delightful genre scene. As in many of these etchings, there is a conscious attempt to depict the actual surroundings with accuracy and at the same time to create an antiquarian aura that capture Germanic folk tradition. Many feel that this is the greatest of Cruikshank's etchings for the Grimm tales. [No. 51, p. 138]
... only recently, Mr. Hamerton, in his new work, "Etching and Etchers," speaks of the favourite of all these etchings, the well-known "Two Elves and the Shoemaker," in these words: — " This pleasant tale was so well adapted to the genius of Cruikshank, that it has suggested one of the very best of all his etchings. The two Elves, especially the nearer one, who is putting on his breeches, are drawn with a point at once so precise and vivacious, so full of keen fun and inimitably happy invention, that I have not found their equal in comic etching anywhere. It is said that these elves are regarded with peculiar affection by the great master who created them, which is only natural, for he has a right to be proud of them. The picturesque details of the room are etched with the same felicitous intelligence; but the marvel of the work is in the expression of the strange little faces, and the energy of the comical wee limbs. [Prefacing Ruskin's introduction]
Other illustrations from this work
German Popular Stories. Ed. Edgar Taylor with an Introduction by John Ruskin. London: John Camden Hotten, nd.
Taylor, Edgar (translator). German Popular Stories Translated from the Kinder Und Haus Marchen, Collected by M. M. Grimm, from Oral Tradition. Vol. One. London: Charles Baldwyn, 1823.
Vogler, Richard A. Graphic Works of George Cruikshank. New York: Dover, 1979.
Created 12 August 2007
Last modified 30 October 2026