IMPERCEPTIBLE | Christa Zaat

Christa Zaat



Harry George Theaker (British painter) 1873 - 1954
Andvari and the Rhine Maidens, ca. 1916
colour lithograph
private collection

Illustrated for Children's Stories from the Northern Legends by M. Dorothy Belgrave and Hilda Hart. Published 1916 by Raphael Tuck & Sons in London.

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In Norse mythology, Andvari (Old Norse "careful one") is a dwarf who lives underneath a waterfall and has the power to change himself into a fish at will. Andvari had a magical ring Andvaranaut, which helped him become wealthy.
Using a net provided by Ran, Loki catches him as a pike and forces him to give up his gold and Andvaranaut. Andvari cursed the stolen gold which would destroy anyone who possessed it. After the deaths of Brynhild and Sigurd, Gunnar left Andvari's gold in a cave. Years later, Andvari discovered the cave and his lost gold, although his ring was lost forever.
In Richard Wagner's cycle of music dramas, Der Ring des Nibelungen, the character Alberich is based in some part on Andvari, but more on the Frankish sorcerer Alberich.

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Theaker, a highly talented painter, designer and illustrator, was born and educated in the Potteries, where his father, also an artist, was the head of the prestigious Wedgwood Institute in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent.
He studied at the Burslem School of Art, the Royal College of Art and in Italy, and himself became the headmaster of Regent Street School of Art in London. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours and the Royal Society of British Artists, of which he became a member in 1920.