The Silver-Leaved Tree

Date1905

Artist Margaretta S. Hinchman (American illustrator, 1877–1955)

Illustration CitationFor Grimms' Fairy Tales, date and place of edition not identified. Possibly unpublished

MediumGouache, silver paint, ink, and graphite on paper

Dimensionssheet: 15 × 11 15/16 in. (38.1 × 30.3 cm)

Credit LineGift of Constance La Boiteaux Drake, 1956

Object number1956-15

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsDRAWING

Label TextIn this fairy tale, Little Two-Eye's life is made unhappy by her one- and three-eyed sisters, who cast her as the strange member of the family. Justice is served when Two-Eyes is magically presented with a silver tree with golden apples, and a handsome prince arrives to marry her. In an ending typical of 19th century re-telling of mediaeval tales, the conventional moral good must prevail, and so Little Two-Eyes forgivingly welcomes her sisters to her home as they have become poor and haggard.

The silver paint, decorative capital and borders, and finely rendered figures recall an illuminated manuscript of the Middle Ages, the period from which the Brothers Grimm collected their compendium of fairly tales.