Happily Ever After? 5 Fairytales in Art

Many of the fairytales we recognize today trace their origins to the 16th and 17th centuries, shaped by storytellers like the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault. While we will explore only five in this article, we hope to inspire you to uncover more.

Fairytales were not always a common theme in art. Their visual depiction gained popularity during the Victorian era when society placed greater emphasis on childhood. This newfound focus led to a surge in fairytale-inspired paintings, some of which later became the foundation for stunning illustrated books.

However, the stories we know today are softened versions of much darker, often gruesome originals. Unlike Disney’s adaptations, the earliest fairytales contained haunting themes, violent twists, and eerie symbolism. Art has preserved both sides—the enchanting beauty and the chilling horror—capturing every detail with striking intensity.

1. Cinderella

One of the most iconic fairytale princesses is Cinderella. While her story likely originates from ancient Greece and Egypt, variations exist across cultures, including Malta, China, Korea, Cambodia, and Iran. A version even appears in One Thousand and One Nights, also known as Arabian Nights. However, the first written version emerged in Europe.

Giambattista Basile’s Pentamerone (1634), published in Lo Cunto de li Cunti (The Story of Stories), introduced many familiar elements—the cruel stepmother, wicked stepsisters, magical transformations, and a lost slipper. However, instead of a glass slipper, this early version featured a patten, a type of medieval wooden clog. The story also included a monarch searching for the slipper’s owner, much like later retellings.

The most famous versions, however, come from Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. Perrault’s Cendrillon, ou La Petite Pantoufle de Verre (The Little Glass Slipper, 1697) introduced the pumpkin carriage, fairy godmother, and delicate glass slippers. His version closely resembles the Disney adaptation, but he included two moral lessons. First, beauty is valuable, but kindness and grace are priceless. Second, these virtues alone may not lead to success without a guiding hand—symbolized by the fairy godmother, reinforcing Christian ideals.

The Brothers Grimm’s Aschenputtel (19th century) presents a far darker tale. In this version, Cinderella’s father is alive but indifferent to her suffering. The stepsisters, desperate to fit the golden (not glass) slipper, mutilate their feet—one slicing off her toes, the other her heel. The prince discovers the deception when blood stains their clothes. Instead of a fairy godmother, Cinderella’s aid comes from a wishing tree she plants on her mother’s grave. When she longs to attend the ball, two white doves deliver her dress.

In the Grimms’ 1812 version, Cinderella’s story ends as expected—she marries the prince and lives happily ever after. However, in the 1819 edition of Grimms tale, the ending was revised, making it even more gruesome. During Cinderella’s wedding, her stepsisters serve as bridesmaids, hoping to win her favor. Two white doves, perched on Cinderella’s shoulders, peck out one eye from each sister as they walk down the aisle. The sisters endure the pain silently, unwilling to disrupt the ceremony. Once it concludes, Cinderella commands the doves to blind them completely, leaving them to a fate of permanent darkness.

Over the centuries, artists have explored several fairytales in art and managed to portray Cinderella’s story with both enchanting beauty and haunting darkness.

2. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

This is one of the most popular fairytales in art, written during the Victorian era. Lewis Carroll published this English novel in 1865, originally as a children’s story. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland follows a young girl, Alice, who tumbles through a rabbit hole into a fantastical world filled with peculiar creatures with human traits. The story’s characters, surreal imagery, and whimsical narrative have profoundly influenced literature, music, cinema, art, and even psychiatry.

The first illustrator, John Tenniel, created 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the book’s debut edition. Carroll had already drawn 37 illustrations to accompany the story, but Tenniel’s work became the definitive visual representation of the fairytale and remains iconic today.

During the 1860s, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland stood out as one of the first children’s books meant purely for entertainment, breaking away from the era’s educational focus. Carroll later wrote a sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, published in 1871. Both books belong to the literary nonsense genre—where logic is defied, and absurdity reigns. However, beneath the surface, they contain deep existential and nihilistic themes.

Over the years, scholars have classified Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as roman à clef—a novel with a key—meaning that real-life people and events are hidden beneath its fantastical layers. Many characters reflect figures from Carroll’s own life, adding an extra dimension to the story.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has become one of the most widely depicted fairytales in art, inspiring countless artists to interpret its whimsical and symbolic world in their own unique ways.

3. Little Red Riding Hood

Another beloved fairytale is Little Red Riding Hood. Though European, it traces its origins to numerous pre-17th-century folk tales. The story’s themes appear in ancient Greece and Rome, Norse mythology, and even regions like North Africa, Taiwan, Korea, China, and Japan. While the specific details may differ, these tales often feature a maiden or child and a beast, and in many, the maiden eventually marries the beast’s killer. As with many fairytales discussed here, the most popular versions come from Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. The roots of these versions lie in a tale shared by 10th-century French peasants and a story by Italo Calvino, La Fiuta Nonna (The False Grandmother), published in Fiabe Italiane (Italian Folktales).

Charles Perrault’s Le Petit Chaperon Rouge (The Little Red Hood), published in 1697, is the first widely known version. The story follows a young girl in a red cape, tricked by a cunning wolf while visiting her ailing grandmother. In Perrault’s version, after the girl realizes the wolf has eaten her grandmother, the creature devours her as well, then falls asleep. The tale ends there, with no happy ending or rescue.

In contrast, the Brothers Grimm’s Rotkäppchen (also published in their famous collection) introduces a hunter who saves the day. With an axe, he slays the wolf, rescuing the girl and her grandmother. Afterward, they fill the wolf’s body with heavy stones, and when it tries to drink from a well, the stones cause it to drown.

Little Red Riding Hood has inspired much analysis over the years. The most common interpretation is that the fairytale symbolizes the journey into puberty, marking the girl’s transition to adulthood. Yet other readings suggest the story represents themes of rape and abduction, lending it a much darker tone. Regardless of the interpretation, Little Red Riding Hood remains one of the most popular fairytales depicted in art, inspiring numerous artists to bring its eerie and timeless narrative to life.

4. Rapunzel

One of the most famous stories about a princess trapped in a tower, but with a much darker twist than the sweet Disney version we know today, is Rapunzel. This German fairytale, most famously recorded by the Brothers Grimm, evolved from the French tale of Dersinette by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de la Force, published in 1698. The French version, in turn, drew from the Italian fairytale Petrosinella, written by Giambattista Basile in 1634.

In these stories, a sick woman expecting a baby girl has her child taken by a sorceress. The girl is locked away in a tower at the age of 12 and kept there for many years. At 16, Rapunzel’s fate changes when a prince stumbles upon her tower by chance. He falls in love with her, and they secretly marry.

Rapunzel becomes pregnant, and the sorceress, Dame Gothel, discovers the secret. In a fit of rage, she cuts off Rapunzel’s long hair and banishes her into the wilderness. Dame Gothel then deceives the prince, throwing him from the tower onto a bed of thorns. While he survives the fall, he is blinded by the thorns. Months later, Rapunzel, now living in the wild, gives birth to twins—a boy and a girl. The prince, still wandering the wastelands, finds Rapunzel once more, through her singing. When she sees him, her tears fall into his eyes, healing his blindness. The prince then takes her and their children to his kingdom, and they live happily ever after.

A later version from the Brothers Grimm adds that Dame Gothel is trapped in the tower when Rapunzel’s hair falls from her hands during an attempt to stop the prince.

This tale exemplifies the “maiden in a tower” trope, often symbolizing the overprotective guardianship of young women and the dangers of restricting them from relationships or the outside world. In these stories, the maiden is under the control of an authoritative figure, cut off from the life beyond the tower walls. Rapunzel has inspired many interpretations in art, with its themes of isolation, rescue, and forbidden love depicted in various ways throughout history.

5. Sleeping Beauty

The final fairytale to explore is Sleeping Beauty. The earliest known version of this tale appears in the French story Perceforest, popular between 1330 and 1344. Later, Giambattista Basile wrote an Italian version, Sun, Moon, and Talia, which was included in his collection Pentamerone, published between 1634 and 1636. Basile’s version was adapted by Charles Perrault, whose telling became the foundation for the Brothers Grimm’s interpretation, incorporating new elements like the thorny rose hedge and the curse. Among these, Basile’s version is arguably the most shocking.

In Sun, Moon, and Talia, a princess named Talia is cursed by an evil fairy who predicts that she will die from a splinter of flax. Despite her parents’ best efforts to prevent it, Talia is indeed pierced by the flax, but instead of dying, she falls into a deep sleep. Believing she has passed away, her father places her on a velvet throne and leaves the palace, abandoning the princess all by herself.

Years later, a passing king discovers the abandoned palace and finds Talia still asleep on the throne. He leaves her pregnant and then departs. While still asleep, Talia gives birth to twins. One of the babies sucks her finger and removes the flax, causing Talia to awaken, though she has no memory of what happened. The king returns, and the two fall deeply in love, but he must leave her once again, promising to return.

The darker second part of the story involves the king’s queen, who learns of Talia and the twins. Consumed by jealousy, the queen orders the cook to kill the children, cook them, and serve them to the king without his knowledge. The cook, however, hides the children and cooks lambs instead, fooling the queen. Later, the queen invites Talia to the palace, intending to burn her alive. The king, upon discovering his wife’s treachery, turns the tables, burning the queen and everyone who betrayed him. The king and Talia then live happily ever after with their children.

While Perrault’s version is less violent and includes fairies blessing the child—elements we recognize in the Disney version—Basile’s telling is far darker. Sleeping Beauty remains a fairytale theme widely represented in art, with Basile’s dramatic version inspiring numerous artworks over the years.