Frogs and Snakes (Original artwork)
- London , 1870
London, 1870. First edition. Original watercolor (8 x 9 in.), sympathetically matted and framed. One of six watercolor designs for Diamonds and Toads (Frederick Warne & Co., 1871), a children’s toy book in the Aunt Louisa’s Toy Books series.
This fantastically vivid and full watercolor drawing from early in Greenaway’s career depicts a young woman holding in her right hand a large tankard and looking horrified as two huge frogs and two snakes jump and slither out of her mouth. At the left is an old woman, who, in the story, has cursed the girl to drop snakes from her mouth when she speaks. Greenaway used her sister, Fanny, as a model for the young woman in the illustration.
Kate Greenaway (1824 - 1901) was commissioned to illustrate Diamonds and Toads, an entry in the Aunt Louisa’s Toy Books series, in 1869. The toy book incorporates six of her illustrations: an “ambitious project” that took her over a year. She earned her “£36 from the color printer, Kronheim, for her watercolor designs” for the book (Engen). It was her first illustrated book and marked the beginning of a long and prolific career as one of the most beloved children’s illustrators of the nineteenth century.
Diamonds and Toads was first published by Charles Perrault, who initially titled the story “Les Fées” (“The Fairies”). It was also eventually included in Andrew Lang’s Blue Fairy Book (1889).
See Spielmann & Layard, pp. 49, 285.
This fantastically vivid and full watercolor drawing from early in Greenaway’s career depicts a young woman holding in her right hand a large tankard and looking horrified as two huge frogs and two snakes jump and slither out of her mouth. At the left is an old woman, who, in the story, has cursed the girl to drop snakes from her mouth when she speaks. Greenaway used her sister, Fanny, as a model for the young woman in the illustration.
Kate Greenaway (1824 - 1901) was commissioned to illustrate Diamonds and Toads, an entry in the Aunt Louisa’s Toy Books series, in 1869. The toy book incorporates six of her illustrations: an “ambitious project” that took her over a year. She earned her “£36 from the color printer, Kronheim, for her watercolor designs” for the book (Engen). It was her first illustrated book and marked the beginning of a long and prolific career as one of the most beloved children’s illustrators of the nineteenth century.
Diamonds and Toads was first published by Charles Perrault, who initially titled the story “Les Fées” (“The Fairies”). It was also eventually included in Andrew Lang’s Blue Fairy Book (1889).
See Spielmann & Layard, pp. 49, 285.