April A-Z Blogging Theme: Picture This! Traditional Fairy Tale Illustrators

Considered too grim for Victorian children, this “Hop o’ My Thumb” illustration was omitted from the 1867 English translation of Perrault’s Fairy Tales.

No starving artist, Gustave Doré!

This French engraver’s skill and his prolific output (he produced some 80,000 wood engravings and lithographs, 400 oil paintings, and 30 works of sculpture) made him a millionaire twice over! He illustrated Balzac, Rabelais, Milton, Dante, Poe, Lord Byron, Cervantes, the English Bible, and Perrault’s Les Contes de Fées. Acclaimed throughout his career, he ultimately faced some criticism for his “dark” fairy tales.

In an era of black and white printing, his images brought colorful characters to life. Perhaps best known is his Don Quixote, which greatly influenced later illustrators as well as casting studios.

Lascivious and conniving, Bluebeard shows his gentle wife which key not to use. Puss in Boots calls out, “Help! Help! The Marquis of Carrabas is drowning!”

Once seen, can Doré’s image of don Quixote and Sancho Panza ever be forgotten?