To accompany our current Fairy Tales exhibition, we take a look at the atmospheric fairy tale illustrations of Czech artist, animator and Hans Christian Andersen Award winner Jiří Trnka.
5 August 2026Blog series European studies
Author Olga Topol, Curator, Slavonic and East European Collections
What is the true purpose of a fairy tale illustration? Is it merely to make a page look more appealing, or does it serve a deeper purpose? A truly inspired illustration is a portal. It allows the reader to cross the boundary between reality and fantasy, acting not as a decoration, but as a co-creator of the story.
In the history of folklore, certain artists become so deeply intertwined with a text that their visions become inseparable from the stories themselves. When we think of traditional Russian fairy tales, the decorative borders and magnificent imagery of Ivan Bilibin immediately come to mind. His depictions of Vasilissa the Beautiful and the terrifying, bone-legged witch Baba Yaga soaring through the forest in her mortar – both of which feature in our current Fairy Tales exhibition – form the definitive visual foundation of those stories for international audiences.
For the British Isles, the romantic precision of Walter Crane or Arthur Rackham shapes our imagination. Modern audiences frequently filter fairy tale imagery through a commercial Hollywood aesthetic, but every culture guards its own distinct heritage.
For Czechia, that definitive giant was Jiří Trnka (1912–1969).
Trnka is often referred to as the ‘Czech Walt Disney’ due to his trailblazing success in puppet animation, honoured at Cannes and many other festivals. However, Trnka was equally interested in the tactile world of book illustration.
Unlike Disney’s bright optimism, Trnka’s work carries a completely different aesthetic: textured, mysterious, and deeply rooted in his cultural background. His genius lay in his immense atmospheric adaptability. He understood that fairy tales require a delicate balance: they must demand a suspension of disbelief while remaining culturally grounded so their moral core resonates.
In his iconic illustrations for Jan Karafiát’s Broučci (Fireflies), Trnka creates an extraordinarily tender and luminous realm.
Illustration from Jan Karafiát, Fireflies: for small and big children (Prague, 1996) YA.1996.b.968.
Illustration from Jan Karafiát, Fireflies: for small and big children (Prague, 1996) YA.1996.b.968.
The characters are soft, wrapped in a dreamy haze, carrying tiny lanterns through giant dandelions and blades of grass. It is a visual lullaby that has shaped the childhood evenings of generations.
Illustration from Jan Karafiát, Fireflies: for small and big children (Prague, 1996) YA.1996.b.968.
His approach changed significantly when handling traditional folklore or satirical narratives. In Folk and Fairy Tales from Bohemia (1966), his tones become earthy, heavy, and rich with texture.
Illustration to ‘The Disobedient Princess’ in Jiří Horák and Jane Carruth, Folk and Fairy Tales from Bohemia (London, 1966). X.992/1464.
Illustration to ‘The Twelve Brothers’ in Jiří Horák and Jane Carruth, Folk and Fairy Tales from Bohemia (London, 1966). X.992/1464.
The faces are deeply expressive and solemn. By contrast, his work for Jan Werich’s Fimfarum reveals a completely different side of his imagination.
Illustration to ‘Tom Thumb’ in Jan Werich, Fimfarum: and Other Stories Old and New (Prague, 1997) YA.1999.b.1610.
His black-and-white ink drawings for the collection display a satirical and slightly severe edge. They are stark and layered with wry humour just like Werich’s stories.
It was Trnka’s contribution to the visual language of childhood that earned him the international Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration in 1968. Rather than sanitising the narratives, his work allowed space for the more complex and darker elements inherent in traditional folklore.
As the current Fairy Tales exhibition demonstrates, illustration operates as more than a simple visual accompaniment to a text. In the work of artists like Trnka, the imagery provides the essential cultural and emotional context that allows a reader to fully engage with the written word.
Eduard Petiška, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with photographs of puppets by Jiří Trnka (Prague, 1960) Shelfmark Cup.20.h.30
Jaroslav Boček, Jiří Trnka: Artist and Puppet Master (Prague, 1965) Shelfmark X.449/1300.
This blog is part of our European Studies blog series, promoting the work of our curators, recent acquisitions, digitisation projects, and collaborative projects outside the Library.
Our blogs explore the British Library's extraordinarily diverse collections of material from all over the continent – from Greece to Finland and from France to Georgia, and everywhere in between.
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