Curiosities: A Fantasy Trip

Fantastical lands and creatures at the Norman Rockwell Museum

Illustration of a ghostly green monster and two children looking scared

Scott Brundage’s 2016 book cover Swamp Scarefest

Image courtesy of the Norman Rockwell Museum

During a fall jaunt through the Berkshires, follow a bread-crumb trail into the imagination at the Norman Rockwell Museum, in Stockbridge. “Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration” (through October 31) features more than 130 flights into faraway lands inhabited by demons, dragons, sprites, and warriors by artists spanning centuries. The focus is “on looking at the tradition of American illustration as a reflection and shaper of culture,” says chief educator and head of public operations Mary Berle ’87, Ed.M. ’90. “One of the biggest ideas in this exhibit is that the imagination is always with us, it’s part of the human condition, but these images also transcend time and space; they are truly fantastical.”


Rose Cecil O'Neill's 1916 The Kewpies and their Fairy Cousin
Image courtesy of the Norman Rockwell Museum

The works depict universal concepts and characters; some elements of what psychoanalyst Carl Jung called the collective unconscious. These are themes found in classic fairy tales and ancient myths, and in contemporary texts, television shows (Game of Thrones) and games (Magic: The Gathering). “Like the battle between good and evil,” Berle says, or a heroine’s journey, knights slaying dragons, and children battling monsters (as in Scott Brundage’s 2016 book cover Swamp Scarefest, at left). Inspired by the Roman god of erotic love, Cupid, cartoonist and suffragette Rose Cecil O’Neill created Kewpie, a sweet-faced, baby-like figure. Genderless and adorable, her naked beings were perennially playful—see her 1916 The Kewpies and their Fairy Cousin, at right—and soon became a popular line of dolls. Contemporary digital illustrator Anna Dittmann conjures powerful ethereal images, like I Dreamt I Could Fly, while Donato Giancola explores apprenticeship and the archetypal old wise man/wizard (Gandalf, from The Lord of the Rings) in Bag End: Shadows of the Past (2013). Beyond humans are otherworldly beings: unicorns, winged horses, and gryphons, Berle says, which began appearing in art more than 4,000 years ago, and have endured. “As our culture becomes increasingly visual,” she adds, “considering how these images affect us becomes its own fascinating project.” The exhibit’s themes resonate with visitors across all ages. 

Click here for the September-October 2021 issue table of contents

Read more articles by Nell Porter-Brown

You might also like

A Space-Age Project for Harvard’s Plant Collection

Light-based analysis of botanical collections link plants to Earth’s changing climate.

An Original Magna Carta, Hidden in Plain Sight

A rare original surfaces at Harvard at an “almost providential” moment. 

Doctors for Change

Countway Library exhibit explores historic anti-nuclear activism

Most popular

House Committee Subpoenas Harvard Over Tuition Costs

The University must turn over all requested materials related to tuition and financial aid by mid-July. 

Two Momentous Faculty Retirements

Arthur Kleinman and Harry Lewis depart the classroom.

The Professor Who Quantified Democracy

Erica Chenoweth’s data shows how—and when—authoritarians fall.

Explore More From Current Issue

A Look at Harvard’s Distinctive Doctoral Regalia

On regalia, a Jack-of-all-trades retirement, and a Bok’s office bon mot.

How Harvard Students Handle Political Disagreements

The Undergraduate asks if intellectualism is really on life support.