The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid, originally published by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837, is a fairy tale about a mermaid princess who longs to gain a human soul while simultaneously falling in love with a prince. This image originates from a 1932 publication of Andersen’s stories, with Arthur Rackham as the main illustrator. Rackham was a famous illustrator and is known for illustrating fairy tales and adventurous stories. Rackham’s use of dim colors and the physique of the statue represents the princess’s youth and how she would lose it once she becomes human. This image represents the mermaid wrapping her arms around a statue that she keeps in her garden, one that resembles the prince. Rackham chose to illustrate this image with dull colors, choosing shades of gray as the main color. These dull colors represent the bleakness of the princesses life as a mermaid, and how she yearns for a human life that would not be as mundane. The main focal point of the image is the statue, with the mermaid’s arms wrapped around its legs. While the statue is supposed to resemble the prince, the statue does look a lot like a young boy. This is particularly interesting, as the prince is sixteen in the story but the statue looks as if the boy is twelve at most. The statue represents the mermaid’s youth, with the physique of the statue representing the child-like body of the mermaid as well. The mermaid is young, about fifteen in the story, which is too young to make such a big decision to lose her family and her home. However, in Rackham’s drawing she does seem to be a little older. This juxtaposes the maturity she is drawn with while she is still technically a child. This particular image caught my attention because of the distinct dull colors and the way the statue looks like a young boy but is supposed to represent the prince. I found the way Rackham chose to draw the statue this way to be interesting seeing as the prince is supposed to be older.