Brothers Grimm’ fairy tales in illustrations by russian artists

Abstract

The article provides a brief overview of the most interesting illustrative cycles of brothers Grimm’ fairy tales, created by Russian artists in the XX and early XXI centuries, and examines different approaches to visual interpretation
of German folklore. Although some successful graphic interpretations of Grimm’ subjects began to appear early in post-revolutionary years, for a number of reasons this valuable literary material long remained outside of attention sphere of the most significant artists of children’s books. The period of the second half of the 1970s-1980s became the happiest and most
fruitful in the publishing fate of fairy tales, when such remarkable masters as N. I. Zeitlin, E. G. Monin, M. S. Mayofis, G. A. V. Traugot, N. G. Golts, B. A. Diodorov, etc. took up the illustration. The second part of the article compares graphic interpretations of the most famous fairy tales of brothers Grimm: “The pot of porridge”, “The gingerbread house”, “The
Bremen town musicians”, “The brave little tailor”. The author traces how the interpretations of textbook subjects change and become more complex over time, and what artistic means prove their relevance.

Keywords: the Brothers Grimm, fairy tale, German folklore, children’s literature, book graphics, illustration, grotesque, fiction