Wednesday, February 25, 2004

I've just finished the illustration of another classic fairy tale: Donkey Skin, (by Charles Perrault).

I don't find Perrault's tales really classic, not in the classic way we get the pattern "the evil-the innocent princess-the heroic prince".
And here, Donkey Skin talks clearly of incest, though I also see it as a representation of forced marriage, "forced love", which happened at the time of Perrault. That habit led to tragic situations as it is more than suggested in this tale.

Anyway, I like a lot this tale, this young princess wearing the bloody (that's how I'd paint it in an adult version) and ugly skin of her dad's beloved donkey. The kind of tale that does not let you with a stoopid sighing smile all along (=the way I smile most of the time! ;-)

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