Each thematic chapter opens with a short introduction before presenting a selection of artworks accompanied by concise but detailed accounts of their artists and historical contexts. Ebenstein avoids a chronological approach, allowing representations of the same otherworldly figures from distant periods to meet on the page. <\/p>\n
As a result, William Nicholson\u2019s luminous 1922 illustration<\/a> of a fairy stemming from a flower faces contemporary artist Mat Collishaw\u2019s 1997 photographs of fairies amid technological debris<\/a> on the opposite page. This act of unexpected juxtaposition sharpens the reader\u2019s eye to the changing visions of the marvellous, showing how each artist has imagined anew what magic and otherworldly beings might look like. <\/p>\n The heart of Ebenstein\u2019s collection lies in the Golden Age of Illustration (circa 1880 to 1930), when richly illustrated children\u2019s books flourished. Her research brings lesser-known visual treasures into conversation with more familiar artworks. <\/p>\n Fran\u00e7ois-Louis Schmied\u2019s illustrations<\/a> for the 1926 story Histoire de la Princesse Boudour (The Story of Princess Boudour), the French translation of one of the tales from The Arabian Nights, for instance, appeared in an art deco edition of only 20 copies. The book also features Austrian artists Heinrich Lefler and Joseph Urban\u2019s sumptuous illustrations for a 1905 Viennese deluxe edition of Grimms\u2019 Fairy Tales<\/a>. <\/p>\n As they pass from one artistic form to another, fairy tales undergo continual visual metamorphoses. Ebenstein\u2019s collection makes visible how fluidly these narratives travel between media. For instance, Russian painter L\u00e9on Bakst\u2019s exuberant 1915 poster design for Stravinsky\u2019s The Firebird<\/a> transmutes the Russian folktale, adapted for the ballet, into a compelling visual form. <\/p>\n German animator Lotte Reiniger\u2019s The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), inspired by the fairy tale One Thousand and One Nights, meanwhile, transforms storytelling through silhouette animation, using hand-cut figures animated frame by frame.<\/p>\n Some of the most provocative illustrations appear in the chapter Witches and Dangerous Women. Ebenstein asks what happens when women cross culturally prescribed boundaries and reclaim power for themselves. It\u2019s a question with a long history in fairy tale scholarship. <\/p>\n In Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion<\/a> (2006), literary scholar Jack Zipes examined how fairy tales teach societal rules while also offering a clever way to challenge them. In Ebenstein\u2019s collection, this tension unfolds into sequences of images that expose shifting ideas about power and gender. This includes Th\u00e9ophile Alexandre Steinlen\u2019s Metamorphosis \u2013 Black Cats Transforming Themselves into Witches<\/a> (c. 1890), a colour lithograph which depicts exultant broomstick-riding witches sweeping across the Parisian sky. <\/p>\n More than a century later, fairy tale imagery continues to offer artists a language through which women\u2019s agency can be explored. <\/p>\n Spanish illustrator Ana Juan\u2019s illustrations for Caperucita Roja<\/a> (2022), her visual retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, are startling. They depict an eerie red-capped girl lifting her skirts to reveal a black wolf made of shadow beneath them, its white teeth stark against the darkness. The image captures the darker meanings associated with the tale which, as Ebenstein notes, became less explicit as versions of the story were adapted for children. <\/p>\n Israeli photographer Dina Goldstein\u2019s series Fallen Princesses<\/a> (2007\u20132009), meanwhile, subverts the dominant iconography of Disney princesses to question ideals of femininity and happiness. These forms of artistic engagement resonate with what I termed \u201cfairy-tale artivism\u201d in The Routledge Companion to Fairy Tales<\/a> (2026): creative reworkings of fairy tales that draw attention to social inequities and open imaginative possibilities for change.<\/p>\nWitches and dangerous women<\/h2>\n
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