How to Tell a Fairy Tale With Images: Narrative Theories and French Paintings from the Early Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This article first discusses theoretical approaches to the question of pictorial narrative, and argues that images can generate a narrative, but do so by different means than texts. Consequently, visual narratives should not be analysed using the same criteria as developed for textual narratives. Based on this idea, the article further analyses two French paintings from the early nineteenth century that represent a fairy tale by visual means alone, and which can be considered as paintings that tell a fairy tale: Petit Chaperon rouge (c. 1820) by Fleury François Richard, and Peau d’âne (1819) by Jean‐Antoine Laurent.