"Blondine & the White Deer"

— Our Virginia Sterret Series Plate #4 

Virginia Frances Sterrett was 19 years old when she drew this. Not 19 and trained at a prestigious atelier. Nineteen, sick with tuberculosis already, working on her first professional commission for Penn Publishing. The illustration came out in 1920. She died ten years later, at 30, with only four books to her name. The work outlasted her by a century.

📖 The Story Behind This Piece

This is the most intimate and architecturally sophisticated illustration in the collection — and it depicts the single most disorienting moment in the entire book.

Blondine was seven years old when she was lost in the enchanted Forest of Lilacs. A white cat named Beau-Minon led her to an enchanted castle where she met Bonne-Biche, a magical white deer. Bonne-Biche put Blondine to sleep that same night. She slept for seven years.

When Blondine woke, she was fourteen. Her hair had grown to her feet. She had grown into a young woman overnight — or so it seemed to her. She ran to Bonne-Biche's chamber and found she could play the piano brilliantly, draw with true talent, write with elegant handwriting, and knew the contents of countless books she had never consciously read. Bonne-Biche had educated her through enchantment while she slept, watching over her childhood with a care her own mother had never shown.

Surprised and overwhelmed, she threw her arms around Bonne-Biche's neck. "Oh! my dear true good friends, what a debt of gratitude do I owe you for having thus watched over my childhood and developed my intellect and my heart. I feel how much I am improved in every respect and I owe it all to you."

Beau-Minon the white cat sat to the left, patting her hand delicately.

This is that moment. Blondine in her grey-blue gown, floor-length golden hair pooling across the geometric tile, pressing her face against the white deer's neck with her eyes closed. Beau-Minon sitting with quiet dignity to the left. The extraordinary red lacquered door panel at left — covered in layered circular motifs in blues and greys, distinctly Japanese in influence — contrasting with the absolute black void of the open doorway at right. The Art Deco stained glass window cutting blue geometry into the darkness above. Two different tile patterns meeting at the foreground: geometric star tiles below Blondine's feet, bold black-and-white checkers extending to the right.

Sterrett was given complete artistic freedom to choose which passages to illustrate. This is the moment she chose to represent the emotional heart of the Blondine story: not the drama of being lost in the forest, not the tragedy of the destroyed castle, but this — a girl waking up after seven years, transformed, and knowing exactly who to thank.

This illustration is part of the Virginia Frances Sterrett Old French Fairy Tales Collection.

See all four →

• PLATE#2 Violette in the Forest 
  
• PLATE#3 Henry and the Genius of the Mountain 
• PLATE #1 Blondine in the Forest 

🎁 Who Gets One of These

A few specific people come to mind immediately.

✔️ The Art Nouveau collector who owns Mucha prints — Sterrett worked in the same organic tradition, but her source material was narrative. Blondine in the forest sits closer to Klimt's landscapes than to a poster. You probably don't own anything like it.
✔️ The person who grew up on fairy tales and still takes them seriously — Not as nostalgia. As a legitimate literary form. Ségur's "Old French Fairy Tales" is nearly forgotten now, and Sterrett's illustrations are the best argument for reviving it.
✔️ The Golden Age of Illustration enthusiast — If you know Rackham and Dulac already, Sterrett is the name your shelf is missing. She made four books. All of them matter.
✔️ The gift-giver who wants something with a story attached — Not a decorative object with a vague backstory. A first commission, a 19-year-old artist, a giant tortoise, a publishing house, 1920. The story is specific enough to actually tell.
✔️ The puzzle buyer who has finished cardboard and wants something to keep — The wooden box and the MDF board mean this doesn't get thrown away when it's done. It goes somewhere in the house.

🧩 Puzzle Specifications

✔️ Precision laser-cut wooden pieces
✔️ 3mm MDF core — rigid, warp-resistant, built to last
✔️ UV printing directly on wood — no paper laminate, no peeling
✔️ Traditional grid-cut design
✔️ Sizes: 15"x23", 18"x24", 23"x31"
✔️ Piece counts: 300–1000
✔️ Handcrafted wooden keepsake box included
✔️ Made to order — ships in 3–4 weeks