Could fairies be real?

Part of the appeal of Cicely Mary Barker’s enchanting illustrations of Flower Fairies is their realism. The artist painted from nature and based the fairies themselves on real children. The result of this attention to detail is a delightful series of incredibly accurate illustrations of fairies. Although fairies of course are not actually real creatures… ….or could they be? We asked curators from World Museum what they thought.