Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011554The Wren and the Bear
About the Artwork
The battle depicted here between flying and land animals is from the fairy tale “The Wren and the Bear.” The bear insults the wren, the king of the birds, leading to a war. Most of Arthur Rackham’s best-known illustrations combine intricate line work with delicate coloring. However, he also produced some silhouette illustrations like this one, created for a luxury edition of Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. The illustration won a gold medal at the 1906 Milan International Exhibition, where it was exhibited as The Battle between the Air and the Earth.
Exhibition history
Fairy Tales and Fables: Illustration and Storytelling in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 4-September 8, 2024).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Arthur Rackham (British, 1867–1939)
- Date
- 1902
- Medium
- brush and black ink and pen and black ink, with watercolor, on paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 36.7 x 25.8 cm (14 7/16 x 10 3/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Ralph Perkins in memory of Coburn Haskell
- Accession no.
- 1946.8
More by Arthur Rackham in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011554
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