Illustrations by Karl Alexander Wilke (1879-1954).
Pond life. Art by M. A. Koekkoek (1, 4) and Ned Seidler.
Image 4—a version of image 1 as you can see; I’m not sure which one came first—used to hang on the wall of the staircase in my aunt’s house. I passed it often, and I always looked at it. Sometimes it was just a sideways glance, other times I studied it more thoroughly. But I always had to look. To live among those creatures beneath the surface... Somehow that idea appealed to me. I can easily get lost staring at these illustrations, especially the fourth one, with its twilight haze and its misty floor, teeming with life and yet so quietly mysterious.
