Works of Art I Know

Princess with Magic Fish
Tom Otterness
2003
American

Story of the Sculpture:
Tom Otterness describes the famous fairytale about the magic fish who grants a girl many wishes, one of which is to become a princess. She frequently returns to the fish by the sea (as depicted in the sculpture), until he sees that the princess is getting too greedy and decides that enough is enough. Just as quickly as he granted her wishes, he made them all disappear, leaving the princess once again a poor girl, just like she was before she met the fish.

I was familiar with this story before I saw the sculpture, but I think that someone who didn't know before could have figured out the story by examining the sculpture. One of the things that hints the main idea of the story is the posture of the princess. She has one hand extended to the fish: almost like she's asking for something (in this case, asking him to grant her wish). Or, she could be reaching to the ring that the fish holds in his mouth. The ring could have been one of her wishes, or it could symbolize her wish to marry. The crown was another give-away, confirming the "princess" part of the title.