A E Kennedy

Artist: A E Kennedy
Medium: Watercolour on Board
Size: 6" x 8" (155mm x 210mm)
Date: 1950

This is the original Watercolour painting by A E Kennedy.

One of a series of illustrations by A E Kennedy depicting scenes from the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale The Flying Trunk. A young man squanders his inheritance until he has nothing left but a few shillings, a pair of slippers, and an old dressing-gown. A friend sends him a trunk with directions to pack up and be off.

Having nothing to pack, he gets into the trunk himself. The trunk is enchanted and carries him to the land of the Turks. He uses the trunk to visit the sultan's daughter, who is kept in a tower because of a prophecy that her marriage would be unhappy. He persuades her to marry him. When her father and mother visit her tower, he tells them a story. They are impressed and consent to the marriage.

To celebrate his upcoming marriage, the young man buys fireworks and flies over the land setting them off. Returning to the earth, a spark incinerates the trunk, and the young man can no longer visit the princess in the tower. Instead, he wanders the world telling stories. Unknown edition, probably 1950s.