Hermann Vogel (1854–1921)
This German illustrator changed his style through the artistic career but we can safely presume his illustrations from Grimms' Fairy Tales were among his top creations. When I was looking at the portfolio of Hermann Vogel, I had several great options but have chosen The Goose Girl:
This beautiful illustration is one of my favorites because of all the details presented in a one single picture.
We can see the horse's head and a goose in upper corners. Horse is of course a talking horse, one of magic gifts given to the princess who leaved her home, lost everything and finally got what deserved. Goose is one of many geese which she had to take care of in the times of her degradation. She had to fall if she wanted to rise and the experience as a goose girl helped her.
The scene is extremely powerful. Princes wanted to drink but her servant denied to obey her demand. She felt more powerful in one on one situation and forced the princes to switch positions.
What is even more important, princes gave her word not to tell a living soul about the truth. She will be living as servant and a servant as a princes.
But princes who became a goose girl couldn't escape the fate and king find out she had a secret. He asked her about that and she could easily tell the truth. The problem is in this case she would break her word and even it was given to somebody in lower position and even it was forced, she still doesn't want to break it.
Fortunately the king was smart enough to find the truth anyway and we got happy ending with punished servant (she actually demands cruel punishment for herself!).
I believe the most important message od this powerful fairy tale is we should be faithful to ourselves. If everything else fails (and to the princes who became a goose girl this really happened), we can still have our pride, our dignity, our integrity.
All this should sooner or later bring the reward. At least in fairy tales...
This German illustrator changed his style through the artistic career but we can safely presume his illustrations from Grimms' Fairy Tales were among his top creations. When I was looking at the portfolio of Hermann Vogel, I had several great options but have chosen The Goose Girl:
This beautiful illustration is one of my favorites because of all the details presented in a one single picture.
We can see the horse's head and a goose in upper corners. Horse is of course a talking horse, one of magic gifts given to the princess who leaved her home, lost everything and finally got what deserved. Goose is one of many geese which she had to take care of in the times of her degradation. She had to fall if she wanted to rise and the experience as a goose girl helped her.
The scene is extremely powerful. Princes wanted to drink but her servant denied to obey her demand. She felt more powerful in one on one situation and forced the princes to switch positions.
What is even more important, princes gave her word not to tell a living soul about the truth. She will be living as servant and a servant as a princes.
But princes who became a goose girl couldn't escape the fate and king find out she had a secret. He asked her about that and she could easily tell the truth. The problem is in this case she would break her word and even it was given to somebody in lower position and even it was forced, she still doesn't want to break it.
Fortunately the king was smart enough to find the truth anyway and we got happy ending with punished servant (she actually demands cruel punishment for herself!).
I believe the most important message od this powerful fairy tale is we should be faithful to ourselves. If everything else fails (and to the princes who became a goose girl this really happened), we can still have our pride, our dignity, our integrity.
All this should sooner or later bring the reward. At least in fairy tales...
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