The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

The Wren and the Bear

1902

Arthur Rackham

(British, 1867–1939)
England, early 20th Century
brush and black ink and pen and black ink, with watercolor, on paper
Sheet: 36.7 x 25.8 cm (14 7/16 x 10 3/16 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Ralph Perkins in memory of Coburn Haskell 1946.8
Location: Not on view

Description

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.
  • Francis, Henry. "Recent Accessions to the Museum Collections." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 33, no. 9 (November 1946): 167-168. Mentioned: p. 167 www.jstor.org
  • Fairy Tales and Fables: Illustration and Storytelling in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 4-September 8, 2024).
  • {{cite web|title=The Wren and the Bear|url=false|author=Arthur Rackham|year=1902|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1946.8