In the Grimm Brothers story of Sleeping Beauty, an evil fairy casts a spell on the child. The spell states she will stab herself with a spindle at 15 and die. However, another fairy changed it so that she will go to sleep and be awakened with true love’s kiss. Sleeping Beauty is asleep and the whole castle is frozen in time for 100 years until true love’s kiss wakes her up.
This illustration captures the peaceful, happy moment before Sleeping Beauty touches the spindle and both her and the castle fall asleep for 100 years. Alexander Zick focuses on the calm moment before everything goes wrong, instead of all the evil and sadness in the story.