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SNOW WHITE // THE GAZE

Snow White is a story preoccupied with the way its characters look at each other. The first queen sees the child she wants in her mind’s eye and then brings her forth just as pictured. The new queen (and stepmother) looks into a mirror that first confirms her need to be “the fairest of them all” and then shatters it. The same mirror allows her to watch Snow White from afar, stoking her obsession even when the girl is out of her literal sight. The external observation of Snow White’s beauty also works in her favor. It contributes to the huntsman’s hesitation and the dwarves’ willingness to take her in. Later it is the entire premise on which the prince becomes enamored and rescues Snow White from eternal sleep. The gaze of others, often mediated through glass (mirrors, windows, coffins), determines the trajectory of the narrative and Snow White’s fate.  

It’s no surprise then that illustrated editions of Snow White tend to reproduce the same scenes over and over again. The examples in Dartmouth Library generate a standard set of images. The queen stares into her mirror. The dwarves gaze adoringly on Snow White. The girl herself regards the disguised queen with suspicion from her cottage window. Finally, the still-beautiful corpse of Snow White is interred in the glass coffin that allows others to continue observing her in a manner that is unimpeded by her death.

A great deal of ink has already been spilled on the act of looking in art. This is especially true in looking at women specifically, with the critic John Berger introducing the concept of a “male gaze” in art and theorist Laura Mulvey popularizing it for feminist film criticism. Edgar Allan Poe famously (and creepily) said that “The death [of] a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.” Certainly, the illustrators of these renditions of Snow White thought so, though they didn’t limit themselves to the dead girl. They have focused primarily on vanity, voyeurism, and consumption, mirroring the themes of the tale in their approaches to rendering it.

 

Lancelot Speed, 1890

In this striking illustration by Lancelot Speed (1860-1931), the evil queen looks into her reflection and the reflection looks back at the reader. Speed and fellow illustrator Henry Justice Ford were the primary artistic contributors to the immensely popular Lang fairy book series, of which this is an example.

Robert Anning Bell, 1901

Better known for his paintings and mosaics, artist Robert Anning Bell (1862-1933) provides a simple but evocative line drawing of the queen. Like many other illustrations of the character, she is profoundly absorbed in her own reflection and resulting jealousy. 

Sine Illus B455gri

Katharine Cameron, 1904

One of the “Glasgow Girls,” a group of female artists working in the Glasgow Style, Katherine Cameron (1874-1965) presents two of the customary scenes in Snow White illustrations. In this first, the queen gazes at herself and poses her question to the mirror. 

Katharine Cameron, 1904

In the second of Cameron’s illustrations, the dwarves gaze on the tableau of their temporarily dead companion.

Harry Rountree, 1908

Breaking from the traditional illustrations a bit, Harry Rountree (1878-1950) shows a domestic scene of Snow White and the dwarves reading and crafting together. She is still, however, the focal point: all her companions are turned to her, and one even appears to be painting her portrait.

Millicent Sowerby, 1909

Millicent Sowerby (1878-1967) represents three of the most commonly rendered scenes. The queen displays her vanity, Snow White looks at her disguised stepmother from the apparent safety of her new home, and once dead she becomes an object of beauty on display.

Millicent Sowerby, 1909

Millicent Sowerby (1878-1967) represents three of the most commonly rendered scenes in this story. The queen displays her vanity, Snow White looks at her disguised stepmother from the apparent safety of her new home, and once dead she becomes an object of beauty on display.

Sine Illus S58gri

 

Millicent Sowerby, 1909

Millicent Sowerby (1878-1967) represents three of the most commonly rendered scenes in this story. The queen displays her vanity, Snow White looks at her disguised stepmother from the apparent safety of her new home, and once dead she becomes an object of beauty on display.

Sine Illus S58gri

 

Arthur Rackham, 1909

While Rackham does render the required vignette of queen and mirror elsewhere, the showpiece of his illustrated Snow White takes a different tack. The girl’s companions either examine her for signs of harm or avert their gazes in grief, creating a more involved sense of their relationship as friends rather than viewer and viewed.

Warwick Goble, 1913

Eventually developing a specialty in science fiction and the weird, Warwick Goble (1862-1943) was nevertheless prolific in output and flexible in subject matter. His Snow White is marked as the odd one out in this scene, physically separated from her gaggle of onlookers.

Kay Nielsen, 1925

Here, no one looks at Snow White except the reader. Combined with the enormity and emptiness of the surrounding space, Nielsen manages to convey a quiet grief despite the opportunity for voyeurism provided by the coffin.

George Soper, 1925

George Soper (1870-1942) chooses to depict the moment when the huntsman is supposed to kill Snow White, but as he looks at her, he falters. This dynamic color illustration is the focus of his Snow White, but elsewhere he includes another iteration of the vain queen alone with her reflection.

Maurice Sendak, 1973

Maurice Sendak’s queen looks out of the page and back at the viewer. She is both observed and observing. Behind her, the images of Snow White and one of the dwarves are enclosed in the mirror’s frame, visible to us even when the queen’s back is to them. By way of magic, she could see them, but it also seems that they should see her.   

Illus S467jun(i)

 

Trina Schart Hyman, 1974

The dramatic illustrations of Trina Schart Hyman (1939-2004) place extra focus on the queen’s obsession with her stepdaughter. The two characters are often placed in the same frame, with the queen watching and Snow White remaining unaware.

Illus H997gri

Trina Schart Hyman, 1974

Hyman’s dramatic illustrations emphasize the queen and her obsession with her stepdaughter. The mirror is a major set-piece in this version, with a frame of wrought faces that twist and change like a visual Greek Chorus throughout the story.
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