Mary Jane Merrick

I did this as a potential illustration for my friend Gerry's book. A fellow Elephant Man fan himself, its about how our Joseph gets a helping hand from the mysterious Iron-clad Angel (the spirit of Ned Kelly)

Here we have a somewhat romanticized image of Joseph Merrick's mother Mary Jane. The legend goes that she was almost trampled by a circus elephant while pregnant, resulting in her eldest son's disfigurement.

In the background, you can see a faint outline of an elephant's profile over a scene where the near-trampling incident supposedly took place. (The Humberstonegate, Leicester England)