Still freer, more spontaneous, and lighter than in his oil paintings was his touch in his water-colours, in which the colour is only breathed over the forms like a delicate vapour; and quite especially in his illustrations--so far as the word may be employed with respect to him, for he never illustrated, he gave shape to his own thoughts, and that only which moved his innermost being he brought fully formed before one's eye. The _Bilderbogen_ and the _Fliegende Blätter_ of Munich obtained from him witty and humorous inventions, such as "The Almond Tree," "Puss in Boots," "The Peasant and the Donkey," "Herr Winter," and "The Acrobat Games." His fairest legacy consists of three cyclic works: "Cinderella," "The Seven Ravens," and "The Beautiful Melusina"; wherein he glorified with praise the beauty and fidelity of women, and their capacity for self-sacrifice. "Cinderella," which appeared in 1855, at the Munich Exhibition, is a fairy-tale, than which poet has seldom, indeed, narrated a chaster, tenderer, or more fragrant. In 1858 followed the touching story of the good sister who releases her brothers by dint of unspeakable suffering and endurance, to-day the priceless pearl among the gems of the Weimar collection. For twenty years, as he said, the work had been in his thoughts. So far back as in 1844 he wrote to Genelli: "I believe that it will give something which may please people who have a sense for love and faithfulness, and for a touch of the power of enchantment." When an acquaintance of his gazed upon it with dismay, and ingenuously asked for whom the thing was intended, and whither it was to go, Schwind turned his penetrating, flashing little eyes upon him, and then said: "Do you know, I painted that for myself; it is the dream of my life; no one shall buy it; some day I shall give it to a friend." It is an imperishable work, full of grace, modesty, and charm.