‘A thousand guilders!’

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Kate Greenaway (1846-1901)

1888

8 x 6¾ inches

Coloured wood-block engraving by Edmund Evans

The Pied Piper of Hamelin, 23

Browning’s poem presents a challenge for Greenaway, making her illustrate a text in detail, with the focus on adult characters and the development of plot, incident, and setting. [Commentary continues below.]

Scan, text and formatting by Simon Cooke.

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These demands are very different from those of her usual work – which require her to visualize idealized children in idyllic landscapes. In her designs for Browning, however, she shows herself to be an able illustrator as much as a decorator.

The scene shown here is the second meeting between the Piper and the town council. Greenaway draws a clear distinction between the two, using portraiture, gesture and grouping: the councillors are given pinched avaricious faces while the Piper is endowed with an otherworldly presence conveyed in his tallness and steady stare, in profile, as he is scrutinized by the sceptical burghers; his isolation is contrasted against the tight-knit group of this opponents, and the difference between the two sets is further highlighted by the colour contrast of yellow and red.

Bibliography

Browning, Robert. The Pied Piper of Hamelin. London: George Routledge, 1888

Created 15 June 2021