Thumbelina Fairy Tale Illustration Card

Harry Clarke was an Irish artist who illustrated stories for Hans Christian Andersen Tales. He was an excellent craftsman in stain-glass design and put all his energy into it. Many of the illustrators of that period were greatly influenced in their drawings by the commercial arts of that era. We are reminded of the illustrator's of that period like Kay Neilsen and Aubrey Beardsley when we see Harry Clarke's drawings. Clarke's own story illustrations had a stained-glass design appeal to them being chraacterised as having a flat and large colourful style. This illustration is from Hans Christian Andersen's "Thumbelina" in 1916. "She should be Queen of all the flowers."