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Most people would agree that each of the Disney Princesses are individually unique. While most people take their stories and personalities into consideration, few tend to recognize that they each have an individual artistic style. Even though over the years their lineup has homogenized to create what we might consider Classic Disney, the design of nearly each princess was in fact inspired with a specific artist or art style in mind. I believe this is the je-ne-sais-quoi people have a hard time attributing to the magic of Disney. No other, if but a few, animation studios are so maticulous in drawing their influences from establish classical art forms when making an animated feature. So without further ado, here in chronological order are the Disney Princesses and the artists and art styles from which they were inspired.

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Princess: Snow White

Art Style: Arthur Rackham / Classic Fairy Tale Illustration

Being the first heroin of ANY full-length animated feature, Snow White could be considered the staunch establishment of 2d animation as an artform itself. However that would be ignoring the fact that Walt Disney wanted to give a look to his fairy tale that people were already familiar with.


Obviously Walt Disney chose this fairy tale because so many people were already familiar with it. The film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs begins and ends with the opening and closing of a book alluding to the idea that the whole of the film serves as the illustrations to the story. Therefor Disney wanted to emulate the illustations from the books in which people had first heard the story. One of the most famous illustrators of classical children's books was link who had supplied images to tales of the Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Anderson, Lewis Carol and even Shakespeare. For many, this style is still quite familiar.




To emulate this style Walt Disney hired a number of artists like link, link and link to do much of the conceptual design work. Watercolors were the medium of choice for the background to acheive the look of old illustrations. In this picture by Tenggren we can see the original look intended for Princess Snow White.



While early methods of cell painting effectively restricted Disney artists from giving Snow White the look originally desired, her watercolor-painted sourroundings are still highly reminiscent of the works of Arthur Rackam. Unfortunately, even with further developments in animation techniques, another thirteen years would pass before Disney would create Cinderlla. It would be another 9 years with Sleeping Beauty when Disney would meet his own satisfying standards in creating the 'moving illustration'.

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Princess: Cinderella

Art Style: C.E. Brock / Romanticism / Mary Blair

Probably the most widely known and oldest fairy tale with literally dozens of versions from across the world, Disney and his team essentially created what is now the accepted American version of Cinderella. As he did with Snow White, Disney wanted to refer to an art style people would recognize from books.



With all the princess fairy tales being romantic it as only expected that animators would turn to books from the Romantic Era. Primarily occurring during the 1800's, link was a time of artistic and intellectual freedom from the strict creative guidelines of the previous link. Jane Austen, who wrote Pride and Prejudice is just one of many famous authors from this time period. But it were the illustrations from books such as hers by link which was the focus of Disney animators. Here one can see C.E. Brock's line work, borders and water coloring similar to the illustrations in the opening book of Cinderella. Like Arthur Rackham, Brock's illustrations were widespread in books being published during this time including those by Charles Dickons.




Granted, C.E. Brock's style does not continue throughout the rest of the film's background. However, the style of the Romantic era is still present within the movie via architecture, furniture and fashion. The story appears to take place in a fictional world transitioning somewhere between the link and the link (aka 1850s).


For the conceptual art Disney hired link. Walt was particularly fond of Blair's sense of color styling. Unlike the artists of Snow White who had taken are more unembellished approach to the style intended, Mary Blair referred to the art of the Romantic era and put her own modern twist on it. This is noticeable during Cinderella's dancing scene with Prince Charming but nowhere is her style more blatant than the opening credits. (notice her use of ornate curly S shapes)


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Princess: Aurora

Art Style: Eyvind Earle / International Gothic

Yet the third and final Disney Princess fairy tale opening and ending with a book, Sleeping Beauty would be the last attempt Disney made at creating the 'moving illustration'.



When people hear "gothic" they usually envision angsty teenagers decked out in black clothes and makeup, with faces littered with piercings. Not the case here.
link in fact refers to a specific art movement that occurred between the 12th and 16th centuries in what is now France, Germany and Italy. A prime example of such art is this illustration, or illumination, by the link in the early 1400s where we can see not only the fashions but also the architecture of the period. This is just one of many illuminations from the link, considered to be one of the most valuable books in the world.





Rather than take a literal approach to the period's design, Walt Disney hired artist link to give Sleeping Beauty a modern edge. His particular style explored the lack of proper perspectives and displayed certain hints of Art Deco, a modern arts movement from several decades prior.




The end result is what I personally regard as Disney Company's greatest masterpiece in terms of animation. What they created was a brilliant juxtaposition of old meets new with such artistic care I believe has yet to be even closely rivaled in the realm of 2d animation. Sadly, Sleeping Beauty was the last hand painted film Disney ever create and details like the golden outlines of Aurora's hair wouldn't be seen again for another 30 years in Beauty and the Beast.

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