Madame d’Aulnoy was a seventeenth-century French aristocrat who coined the term “fairy tale” (contes de fées) to describe the genre of fiction that she, along with other talented female writers, authored and introduced into literary salons in the 1690s. Eschewing traditional literary concepts of dainty princesses with delicate constitutions, d’Aulnoy and her cadre of fairy tellers instead centered their stories on strong heroines. Deploying magical powers, cross-dressing, and even shape-shifting, her female protagonists ruled over kingdoms and battled against injustices.

This body of artwork is accompanied by the publication of The Island of Happiness: Tales of Madame d'Aulnoy (Princeton University Press, 2021), with an introduction by Jack Zipes and a preface by Frank. In the book, over 200 of Frank’s marginalia line the pages of eight literary fairy tales.

35 gouache and chalk pastel drawings, 30 x 22”, 2019-20

Book: Tales of Madame D’Aulnoy, Introduction and Translations by Jack Zipes, Preface by Natalie Frank, Princeton University Press, 2021