The Pied Piper at the Window

The Pied Piper at the Window
The Pied Piper at the Window

The Pied Piper at the Window

Date1927
Artist (American painter and illustrator, 1861–1956)
Illustration CitationThe Pied Piper of Hamelin, A Child's Story, no author (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1927)
MediumGouache and graphite on illustration board
Dimensionssheet: 27 7/8 × 19 7/8 in. (70.8 × 50.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. William Kimmel, 1973
Object number1973-120
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextElizabeth Bonsall studied with Thomas Eakins before her illustration courses with Howard Pyle. She brought her skill as a well-known illustrator of cats to this legend. In the Pied Piper story, the mediaeval German town of Hamelin suffers an infestation of rats. A man dressed in pied clothing plays his pipe to lure the rodents to their drowning in the nearby river. Bonsall's vivid brushstroke suggests the rats' scramble at the sound of the piper, echoed here by the "voice" of the cat. Observant readers might find irony in the fascinated faces of the children, whom the Pied Piper - in the original version of the legend - later leads to a similar mass death.



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