Representations of elves were extremely popular in 19th-century English painting. However, the mysterious worlds they inhabit are by no means harmless. Elves served as motifs through which artists could capture the still unexplored depths of the human mind in their works. Elf paintings are primarily an English phenomenon of the 18th and 19th centuries. The initially idyllic representations have little to do with a playful escapism, as is often assumed. Rather, elves served as motifs that allowed for the exploration of a modern and controversial area of art: the human mind with its states of consciousness detached from clear wakefulness. Dorothee Gerkens demonstrates how, in elf representations from around 1700 to the 1860s, a new subject emerged that transports the viewer into foreign fantasy worlds.