‘The wonderful music’

[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustrators —> Kate Greenaway —> Next]

’The wonderful music’

Kate Greenaway (1846-1901)

1888

8 x 6¾ inches

Coloured wood-block engraving by Edmund Evans

The Pied Piper of Hamelin, 41

Antagonized by the town council’s unwillingness to pay him, the Piper abducts the children, who are drawn along in a melee of singing and dancing, ‘shouting and laughter’ (41). [Commentary continues below.]

Scan, text and formatting by Simon Cooke.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the source and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print document. Click on the image for a larger picture.]

This is the fourth part of a procession that extends over four pages. Greenaway tells the narrative with pared down directness, contrasting the Piper’s commanding height with his diminutive followers. She animates the frieze with varied gestures and movements, but at least some of the composition’s vividness is realized by Evans’s replication of the artist’s original palette, creating a rich, mosaic-like effect. The image’s attractiveness is strangely at odds with the catastrophic nature of the scene, which suggests a jolly school outing rather than a journey to oblivion.

Related Material

The Pied Piper by Elizabeth Adela Forbes

Bibliography

Browning, Robert. The Pied Piper of Hamelin. London: George Routledge, 1888.

Created 15 June 2021