Oil on canvas, stretched and ready to hang.
Signed on the back.
Rapunzel, like most heroines, is isolated: a lone female in a man's world, without female companions. So I decided to give Rapunzel a sister.
Long golden hair has long been associated with female beauty, going all the way back to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. In the middle ages, long, blond hair was idealised as the paragon of female beauty in European culture.
Many fictional heroines have long golden hair, going back to the earliest recorded European fairy tales. Golden Hair a Russian fairy-tale and Rapunzel, a German fairy-tale, both feature a girl with long blond hair. In both tales the girl is punished for falling in love by having her hair cut off. Such was the shame of having one’s hair cut off. But don’t despair, both girls are eventually rescued by their love and they live happily ever after (presumably with their long locks repaired).
It is typical in traditional fairy tales for the female lead to be separated from other women. She is isolated, lonely and vulnerable and awaiting rescue by a man. In a patriarchal society, fairy tales often set women against other women, like the jealous step mother or an old hag. So in my feminist recreation I show Rapunzel with her sister, as they plot together to weave their own golden escape route in the form of a ropes made of hair.
This painting comes signed by artist on the front and the back and is ready to hang.