Alice's Adventures in Wonderland[edit]

The Knave of Hearts is mentioned first in chapter 8, and later in chapters 11 and 12, which deal with his trial for a tart burglary in which the King of Hearts presides as judge. Alice eventually defends the Knave after the evidence becomes increasingly absurd and she is called as a witness.

The White Rabbit announces the charges as:

The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,

All on a summer day:

The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,

And took them quite away!

The Knave rarely speaks during the trial. The Mad Hatter is called to give evidence but spends his entire time being nervous in front of the King and Queen of Hearts, and the Duchess's cook is summoned to tell the court what tarts are made of. Neither is a convincing witness, and the Knave does not provide the King of Hearts with a very good self-defense. He denies he wrote a letter that mysteriously appears in the court, but that he already knows isn't signed.

Alice diverts the attention of the court by growing ever and ever larger and arguing more and more, lastly with the Queen over the concept of "sentence first—verdict afterwards". Before a verdict can be reached for the Knave's innocence or guilt, Alice reaches full size and forcefulness, and then calls them "nothing but a pack of cards!"

It is believed by some people^[1] that since Sir John Tenniel's illustration of the scene in chapter 12 has the Knave with small club outline shapes on his blouse, the ultimate nonsense is that the King and the Queen do not even have the correct person standing trial, this isn't the Knave of Hearts at all, and whoever it is is unwilling to clarify the matter. However, this would also suppose Alice, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and everyone else missed it as well, and that Carroll inserted an unintroduced character. After calling him "the Knave of Hearts" twice in chapter 8, the rest of the chapter simply refers to him as "the Knave". The only other non-heart card characters in the book are the three gardeners (drawn as spades), the ten soldiers (described and drawn as clubs), and the ten courtiers (described as diamonds). For other illustrations involving the Knave, the original art by Carroll for chapter 12 and the chapter 8 drawing by both Carroll and Tenniel show no markings.^[2][3]

The Knave in adaptations[edit]

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland[edit]

Ilosovic Stayne
First appearance	Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Created by	Lewis Carroll
Portrayed by	Crispin Glover
In-universe information
Nickname	Knave of Hearts
Gender	Male
Occupation	Knave
Nationality	Wonderland

Crispin Glover played the Knave of Hearts in the 2010 Tim Burton film Alice in Wonderland.

His real name is given as Ilosovic Stayne who has a very tall appearance and wears a heart shaped eye patch covering his scarred left eye.

In the film, the relationship between the Knave and the Red Queen serves more as the Knave being the Queen's personal assassin. However, much like the other servants of the Queen, Stayne secretly hates her though he plays on her insecurities to secure his position.

During the fight between the Red Queen's army and the White Queen's, the Knave of Hearts fights against the Mad Hatter. After the Jabberwocky is slain by Alice, Stayne is also exiled to Outland with the Red Queen. He tries to kill the Red Queen only to be thwarted by Mad Hatter. As both of them are dragged to their exile, the Red Queen shouted "He tried to kill me" while the Knave of Hearts begged the White Queen to kill him.

He is also a major villain in the video game adaptation of the film and the second boss.

In the sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass, the Knave's skeleton is seen implying that he got his wish to die.

Once Upon a Time[edit]

• The Knave of Hearts appears in two episodes of Once Upon a Time: the season one episode "Hat Trick" and the season two episode "Queen of Hearts" where he is played by Paul McGillion. He takes the White Rabbit's place as the herald of the Queen of Hearts, who to mask her identity communicates with him by whispering through a horn.
• An earlier Knave of Hearts appears in the show's spin-off Once Upon a Time in Wonderland where he is played by Michael Socha. This interpretation of the Knave was taken by the Evil Queen's curse to Storybrooke, Maine. At some point after the curse on the town is broken, the White Rabbitto rescue Alice. His heart was previously removed by Cora (the Queen of Hearts, also the miller's daughter from Rumpelstiltskin and the mother of the Evil Queen) and was retrieved by Alice during her earlier adventures in Wonderland. The Knave of Hearts is also revealed to be Will Scarlet, who absconded to Wonderland with a woman named Anastasia who became the Red Queen.

Television[edit]

• In Syfy's original miniseries Alice, the Knave, played by Philip Winchester, is reimagined as Jack Heart (playing on the fact that "knaves" are now called "jacks"), the son of Mary Elizabeth Heart, a reimagining of both the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen. Jack is the heir to the throne of Wonderland, but escaped to the "real" world to avoid marrying the Duchess. He eventually fell in love with his martial arts instructor, Alice, and was kidnapped by Agent White of the White Rabbits, prompting Alice to enter Wonderland to find him.
• In the anime and manga series Pandora Hearts, the knave is reimagined as Jack Vessalius. A character who while initially presented as a hero; was later revealed to be the mastermind behind the majority of the conflict in the story including Alice's murder due to his insane love for Lacie who was based on the Red Queen to be reunited. This was foreshadowed by the fact that the word "knave" means an untrustworthy person it also means male servant referencing his loyalty for Lacie.

ILLUSTRATOR/ARTIST:

Maxfield Parrish (July 25, 1870 – March 30, 1966) was an American painter and illustrator active in the first half of the 20th century. He is known for his distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery. His career spanned fifty years and was wildly successful: his painting Daybreak (1922) is the most popular art print of the 20th century.^[1]

Early life and education[edit]

The Dinky Bird, an illustration from Poems of Childhood by Eugene Field (1904), exemplifies Parrish's characteristic use of androgynous figures.

Maxfield Parrish was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to painter and etcher Stephen Parrish and Elizabeth Bancroft.^[2] His given name was Frederick Parrish, but he later adopted Maxfield, his paternal grandmother's maiden name, as his middle, then finally as his professional name.^[3] He was raised in a Quaker society.^[2]:110 As a child he began drawing for his own amusement, showed talent, and his parents encouraged him. Between 1884 and 1886, his parents took Parrish to Europe, where he toured England, Italy, and France, was exposed to architecture and the paintings by the old masters, and studied at the Paris school of a Dr. Kornemann.^[4]:110

He attended the Haverford School and later studied architecture at Haverford College for two years beginning in 1888.^[2] To further his education in art, from 1892 to 1895 he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under artists Robert Vonnoh and Thomas Pollock Anshutz.^[4]:110 After graduating from the program, Parrish went to Annisquam, Massachusetts where he and his father shared a painting studio. A year later, with his father's encouragement, he attended the Drexel Institute of Art, Science & Industry.^[2]

Career[edit]

The Lantern Bearers (1908), created for Collier's magazine, shows Parrish's use of glazes and saturated color in an evocative night scene. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Parrish entered into an artistic career that lasted for more than half a century, and which helped shape the Golden Age of illustration and American visual arts.^[5] During his career, he produced almost 900 pieces of art including calendars, greeting cards, and magazine covers.^[6] Parrish's early works were mostly in black and white.^[7]

In 1885, his work was on the Easter edition of Harper’s Bazaar. He also did work for other magazines like Scribner's Magazine. He also illustrated a children's book in 1897, Mother Goose in Prose^[2] written by L. Frank Baum.^[6] By 1900, Parrish was already a member of the Society of American Artists.^[8] In 1903, he traveled to Europe again to visit Italy.^[3]

Parrish took many commissions for commercial art until the 1920s.^[2] Parrish's commercial art included many prestigious projects, among which were Eugene Field's Poems of Childhood in 1904,^[9] and such traditional works as Arabian Nights in 1909.^[10] Books illustrated by Parrish are featured in A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales in 1910,^[11] The Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics in 1911,^[12] and The Knave of Hearts in 1925.^[13]

Parrish was earning over $100,000 per year by 1910, when homes could be bought for $2,000.^[14]

Dream Garden, glass-mosaic mural by Parrish and made by Louis Comfort Tiffany, exhibited at the Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia

In 1910 Parrish received a commission to create 18 panels to go into the Girls Dining Room of the Curtis Publishing Company building, then under construction at 6th and Walnut in Philadelphia. It would take him 16 years to finish the monumental project.^[15] In 1914, before the murals were completed, Curtis commissioned Parrish to design a 15-by-49-foot (4.6 m × 14.9 m) mural for the building lobby. Tiffany Studios constructed a favrile glass mosaic mural titled The Dream Garden,^[16] which is now a part of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts collection.

Parrish worked with popular magazines throughout the 1910s and 1920s, including Hearst's and Life. He also created advertising for companies like Wanamaker's, Edison-Mazda Lamps, Colgate and Oneida Cutlery.^[17] Parrish worked with Collier's from 1904 to 1913.^[8] He received a contract to deal with them exclusively for six years. He also painted advertisements for D.M. Ferry Seed Company in 1916 and 1923, which helped him gain recognition in the eye of the public.^[2] His most well-known art work is Daybreak which was produced in 1923. It features female figures in a landscape scene. The painting also has undertones of Parrish blue.^[6] In the 1920s, however, Parrish turned away from illustration and concentrated on painting.^[14]

Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's Teeth (1908), created for Collier's

In his forties, Parrish began working on large murals instead of just focusing on children's books.^[2] His works of art often featured androgynous nudes in fantastical settings. He made his living from posters and calendars featuring his works.^[2] Beginning in 1904, Susan Lewin (1889-1978) posed for many works, and became Parrish's longtime assistant.^[18] [19]From 1918 to 1934, Parrish worked on calendar illustrations for General Electric.^[20]

In 1931, Parrish declared to the Associated Press, "I'm done with girls on rocks", and opted instead to focus on landscapes. By 1935, Parrish exclusively painted landscapes.^[6] Though never as popular as his earlier works, he profited from them. He would often build scale models of the imaginary landscapes he wished to paint, using various lighting setups before deciding on a preferred view, which he would photograph as a basis for the painting (see for example, The Millpond). He lived in Plainfield, New Hampshire, near the Cornish Art Colony, and painted until he was 91 years old. He was also an avid machinist, and often referred to himself as "a mechanic who loved to paint".^[21]:34

Technique[edit]

Painting for 30 Aug 1923 Life edition

Parrish's art is characterized by vibrant colors; the color Parrish blue was named after him. He achieved such luminous color through glazing. This process involves applying alternating bright layers of translucent glaze separated by varnish over a base rendering.^[5] Parrish usually used a blue and white monochromatic underpainting.^[8]

Parrish used many other innovative techniques in his paintings. He would take pictures of models in black and white geometric prints and project the image onto his works. This technique allowed for his figures to be clothed in geometric patterns, while accurately representing distortion and draping. Parrish would also create his paintings by taking pictures, enlarging, or projecting objects. He would cut these images out and put them onto his canvas. He would later cover them with clear glaze. Parrish's technique gave his paintings a more three-dimensional feel.^[22]

The outer proportions and internal divisions of Parrish's compositions were carefully calculated in accordance with geometric principles such as root rectangles and the golden ratio. In this Parrish was influenced by Jay Hambidge's theory of Dynamic Symmetry.^[23]

Cultural influences[edit]

Daybreak, 1922

Princess Parizade Bringing Home the Singing Tree from Arabian Nights (1906)

Parrish's works continue to influence pop culture. The cover of the 1985 Bloom County cartoon collection Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things comprises elements of Daybreak, The Garden of Allah, and The Lute Players. The poster for The Princess Bride was inspired by Daybreak.^[14] In 2001, Parrish was featured in a US Post Office commemorative stamp series honoring American illustrators, including Parrish.^[24]

The 1986 television commercial announcing Nestle's Alpine White chocolate bar, entitled "Sweet Dreams," staged live-action representations of Parrish's Ecstasy, Dinky Bird, and Daybreak. ^[25]

The Elton John album Caribou has a Parrish background.^[26] The Moody Blues album The Present uses a variation of the Parrish painting Daybreak for its cover. In 1984, Dali's Car, the British New Wave project of Peter Murphy and Mick Karn, used Daybreak as the cover art of their only album, The Waking Hour. The Irish musician Enya has been inspired by the works of Parrish. The cover art of her 1995 album The Memory of Trees is based on his painting The Young King of the Black Isles.^[27] A number of her music videos include Parrish imagery, including "Caribbean Blue".

In the 1995 music video "You Are Not Alone", Michael Jackson and his then wife Lisa Marie Presley appear semi-nude in emulation of Daybreak.^[28] The Italian singer-songwriter Angelo Branduardi's fourth album La pulce d'acqua of 1977 featured nine inlay full colour print reproduction of painter Mario Convertino's works; one of them is clearly inspired by Parrish's Stars.^{[citation needed]}

The original painting of Daybreak sold in 2006 for US$7.6 million.^[29] The National Museum of American Illustration claims the largest body of his work in any collection, with sixty-nine works by Parrish. Some of his works are located at the Hood Museum of Art (Hanover, New Hampshire), the Cornish Colony Museum (Windsor, Vermont), and a few at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The San Diego Museum of Art organized and toured a collection of his work in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

The American painter Norman Rockwell referred to Parrish as "my idol".^[30]

Personal life[edit]

Ecstasy (1929) was widely published on a calendar for General Electric Mazda in 1930.^[31]

Parrish suffered from tuberculosis for a time in 1900.^[4]:110 While sick, he discovered how to mix oils and glazes to create vibrant colors.^[7]

While studying at Drexel, Parrish met his future wife, Lydia Ambler Austin. The couple was married on June 1, 1895 and moved to Philadelphia. They would go on to have four children together.^[32][2] In 1898, Parrish moved to Cornish, New Hampshire with his family and built a home that was later nicknamed "The Oaks".^[4]:110 The home and an adjacent studio were surrounded by beautiful landscapes that inspired Parrish's drawings.^[2]

From 1900 to 1902, Parrish painted in Saranac Lake, New York, and Castle Hot Springs, Arizona to further recover his health.^[3]

Parrish’s youngest child, Jean, posed for Ecstasy just before leaving for Smith College. Jean was the only child to follow her parents’ profession.^[31]

Parrish developed arthritis. He accepted his last commission in the late 1950s. By 1960 his arthritis prevented him from painting.^[33] His last years were spent in a wheelchair. He died on March 30, 1966 in Plainfield, New Hampshire, at the age of 95.