Sleeping Girl (from The Dreaming Youths)

When he was only 21, Oskar Kokoschka was commissioned to create an illustrated children’s book, The Dreaming Youths. This is the only illustration to follow Kokoschka’s original brief before he transformed the book into a dreamlike yet violent tale of adolescent sexual anxiety. A girl sits asleep on an island, surrounded by creatures – blue birds, white deer, and red fish – in pairs, emphasising her solitude. Kokoschka’s limited palette of vivid colours was chosen to recall his childhood paint box.