After a fairly intense week, I'm going to start this one with some art. I first saw the picture with the huntsman and grandmother (which I've put above) and was struck by the use of the color red. It really gave me a difference sense of the family of Little Red Cap and the various roles each had in it.
Turns out every picture in the book has a particular and deliberate dominance of the color, which I hadn't seen before, at least not in this way. There are red flowers, red yarn balls, red fabrics, red rooster wattles, red shadows, red apples, red socks, red curtains, red ribbons, red tongues, red wine, red pie, red strawberries.. so many things included specifically to be this color.
I have to say the last image I'm a little disconcerted by. The wolf is on the roof and look the most human of any time during the story! Is this a second wolf? (which will likely have zero chance against Red and her Grandma now they've been through this ordeal.) Interesting...
The illustrator is Valentina Melnichenko and this series if from a book printed in Russia in 1979 but it's difficult to find more about this illustrator or the book these illustrations were printed in.
(I did find some fantastic Ukranian folklore illustrations by her which I will share soon, as well as just a few from a tale called The Lame Duckling, which I have yet to look into more, but again, in all cases, there is barely any information about the illustrator.)
In the meantime, please enjoy this very RED version of Little Red Riding Hood on your Monday!
The last picture is probably a reference to the second part of "Little Red Cap" by the Brothers Grimm, no? Where Red learns her lesson and she and granny deal with the wolf all on their own by luring him into a pot of boiling water: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm026.html
ReplyDeletei want to find these books and have them. the art is so cool
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