Les Fables de La Fontaine et ses illustrations ou les enjeux de l’interprétation

Abstract

The privileged relations between La Fontaine’s fables and its illustrators have lasted for around four centuries. We have thus sought to compare one of the most popular fables, «The ant and the grasshopper», with its illustrations, so as to point out the perspective each illustrator has brought upon the original text. Before sketching the picture, each artist has made a choice, has voiced a judgment. Each one of them has therefore reframed La Fontaine’s text in such a way that new modes of interpretation have been suggested.