Overview 1

In one sense, the history of the illustration of Grimm's fairy tales is the history of illustration, for it seems as if every major illustrator in Europe and America rose to the challenge of putting images with the folk tales collected by the German brothers in the early nineteenth century. Ludwig Emil Grimm, brother to Jacob and Wilhelm, was the first to illustrate the book. The English version of their tales, German Popular Tales, published by Edgar Taylor in 1823, is considered by some to be "the first masterpiece of children's book illustration" because of George Cruikshank's engravings (Hearn, et al. 7). With his decorative illustrations and his attention to the design of the entire book, Walter Crane contributed much to the evolution of the children's picture book. His Household Stories from the Collection of the Bros. Grimm (1882), translated by his sister Lucy, is a classic edition of the Grimm's tales. In 1888, Kate Greenaway, one of the first women to support herself as an illustrator, illustrated Robert Browning's retelling of the Grimm legend, The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Arthur Rackham first achieved widespread attention for his art with the illustrations from his Grimm's Fairy Tales (1900).

If a look at the various editions of Grimm's Fairy Tales gives us a glimpse at the history of illustration, it can also give us a sense of the history of culture. A comparative view of tales like Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, and Brother and Sister makes us think about the values of the reteller and of the illustrator as well as the values of the audience that the reteller and illustrator was addressing. In other words, the illustrations can tell us something about culture. In some instances, the cultural references are obvious, as when an illustrator portrays a character in period costume