Many people today love the old time fairytales, and admire the beautiful princesses within the story.  Among the abundance of princesses and fairytales is the very famous story called Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty entails the story about a princess who is cursed as an infant by a witch that makes the girl fall into a very deep sleep on her sixteenth birthday.  Prince Phillip saves the day by getting past the witch and waking the sleeping beauty, Briar Rose, with a kiss.  The prince and the princess then fall in love and live happily ever after.  In 1899, Henry Rheam illustrated a beautiful visual text influenced by Sleeping Beauty.  The illustration successfully depicts the plot of the fairytale and gives the viewer a good idea of what Sleeping Beauty is about. Henry Meynell Rheam's Sleeping Beauty painting shows a prince saving the troubled girl he is in love with.  The meaning of this visual text is conveyed through the use of the elements within the painting. 

The first thing one's eyes are drawn to when looking at this visual text is the teenager lying down with a deep purple drape around her body.  The background is very black, making the girl, Briar Rose, the central part in the picture.  The illustrator uses the black to convey the darkness or trouble surrounding the innocent girl. The girl is very pale, contrasting with the purple draped over her.  Rose's pale skin connects with the sleeping beauty being sick or endangered.  Her eyes are closed, and she looks to be asleep, connecting with the title of the visual text.  Rose also has distinct features to her, portraying realism into her character. The illustrator uses the realism effect instead of the abstract art to show her beauty and to get the viewer to make a connection with the painting and the actual fairytale.  Briar Rose is drawn with a very light and smooth texture as well which is used to show her purity and innocence. The illustrator uses a smooth texture when painting the girl, but uses a rough texture on the rest of the painting, creating a big contrast between Briar Rose and the rest of the painting.  This really emphasizes the black versus white, the roughness versus the softness, and the good versus the evil when analyzing the sleeping beauty and the background of the illustration. Next, the purple drape is used to show royalty, as Briar Rose is the daughter of a king.  The purple is very essential because it conveys the importance of the sleeping beauty.  Thus the colors and proximity of the girl show the illustrator is trying to show that Briar Rose is of a royal family, and she is in some sort of danger. 

Prince Phillip is another major part of Rheam's painting.  Behind the sleeping beauty is a guy dressed as a prince. His clothing is also purple, conveying a royal aspect to him.  The prince is hovering over Briar Rose, with his gaze looking down at her face. The guy, known as Prince Phillip, is looking down at her with a very longing expression, almost as if he wants to be with her and help save her. The prince also has real features to his face and body, again making the connection with the fairytale.  An abstract face would not be able to convey Prince Phillip's loving and protecting features for this painting.  The illustrator positioned Phillip's gaze to show his love and tenderness towards her. The young prince's arms are stretched out above her to look like he is going to touch her and protect her from the darkness surrounding her. This positioning shows he is the hero, not the bad guy in this fairytale.  The illustrator successfully expresses the aspect of the prince's love for Rose in the Sleeping Beauty by using proper positioning and realism within Phillip's distinct features.  

Lastly, the visual text has flowers showering from the top right corner of the picture onto the sleeping beauty.  In Sleeping Beauty, Rose pricks her finger on the thorn of a flower, making her fall into a very deep sleep.  The flowers hovering onto Briar Rose could show how she became ill. There are an abundance of flowers that are illustrated as very light and pastel like, also contrasting with the completely black background. Besides Briar Rose, the flowers are the only other light thing in the painting.  The illustrator constructed the contrast between the pretty flowers and the dark background to incorporate pieces of the fairytale into the illustration.  Rheam shows how the something as pretty as a flower can be dangerous and cause trouble.  The flowers, very pink and light, could also show the love between the prince and the princess.  Pink can most often be seen as a symbol of love or tenderness.  The flowers could be seen as Prince Phillip's love and tenderness showering over the sleeping beauty, connecting to the plot of the story.   All in all, the flowers connect with the interpretation of the teenage girl being in danger and Phillip coming in to save the day. 

In conclusion, Henry Meynell Rheam's illustration, Sleeping Beauty, connects well with the fairytale and successfully depicts a troubled princess that is being protected by a prince. The author gives the hint of the two people in the painting being a prince and a princess by incorporating purple, the symbolism of royalty, into the people's clothing.  Rheam uses realism and the offset gaze of both characters when making the faces and body types to show emotion and purpose within the painting.   The dark background against the pale girl shows the contrast and fight between good and evil.  He also emphasizes the good versus evil aspect by using a smooth texture on Rose and a rough texture on the rest of the art.  The flowers also show the plot of the actual fairytale and conveys the love between the prince and the princess. The flowers also play a part in the good versus evil theme, showing the evil in which the thorn of the flower caused Rose to fall asleep, and the goodness of the flowers meaning love and tenderness in the painting. Through the elements within Sleeping Beauty, one can depict the overall meaning. 

