Do you need free images of Red Riding Hood? This is the place to be. But first things first.
Red Riding Hood is over one thousand-year-old fairy tale with hundreds of known versions. Yet, essentially, we need to know about two:
1. Charles Perrault's Red Riding Hood from 1792, the first one with an introduction of the red hood, but without a rescuer in the end. Yes, you read it right. The little girl is eaten and the fairy tale ends with a moral in verse, telling the reader not to trust strangers. There were much older versions before that one, without mentioning the hood, or with a hood in golden color, and with a woodcutter or a hunter who rescues the girl before or after she was eaten, but Perrault's variation stuck. The audience loved it. Only in the 19th century did people start worrying about the impact of the story on children and preferred the one with a happy ending. This leads us to the second version, which is dominating today's literature for kids.
2. The Brothers Grimm wrote a very similar story (with different contents of the girl's basket) in 1812. This one has a happy ending because at the end, when the granny and the girl are already eaten, a hunter hears the wolf's snoring, opens his stomach, rescues his victims, and - you know how things ended. This story is titled Red Cap. Her head covering is consistent with a German tradition of girls and young women wearing a red cap.
Of course, numerous adaptations popped up in the next decades. Translators did their job, too. The word 'little' was added to the title. Some even added the words 'wolf' or 'big bad wolf'. Etc. Etc. Etc.
If you would like to explore the background of this famous fairy tale, here is a lovely article:
https://owlcation.com/humanities/red_riding_hood
But now to the main point: illustrations, paintings, and other images of Red Riding Hood (or Red Cap) on this webpage are in the Public Domain due to the rule of life + 70 years. You can use them for free. If you like them, please consider a link to this website to spread the word. I invested hundreds of hours in research and editing, so it would be a pity not to expose it to everybody who might be interested.
All presented pictures are accompanied by the name of the author and in some cases with additional info. The set of pictures and info should expand in the future if my health and energy levels allow that.
Let's start:
Frank Adams (1871-1944)
The illustration above is one of many in the picture book published by Blackie & Son.
Richard Andre (1834-1907)
Richard Andre illustrated the same story on different occasions. The picture above is from the collection Grimm's Fairy Tales - Retold in One-Syllable Words, published in 1899. The three images below come from a standalone picture book.
Honor Charlotte Appleton (1879-1951)
Honor C. Appleton illustrated Perrault's Fairy Tales in 1911. See? There's a hood, not a cap.
George Baxter (1804-1867)
George Baxter created a colored woodcut of Red Riding Hood, which was used for aquatint print - this printing technique produces areas of tone instead of lines.
Richard Borrmeister (1876-1938)
The same image was also used for a postcard in different brown shades.
Thekla Brauer (?-1943)
Thekla Brauer illustrated Fifty Children’s and Household Tales by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm at the end of the 19th century. There are 16 color illustrations in the book.
Edward Frederick Brewtnall (1846-1902)
Brewtnall is one the painters who loved portraying fairy creatures. He also made a painting with a scene from Sleeping Beauty (what else) and The Frog King.
Gertrud Caspari (1873-1948)
Gertrud Caspari is credited as an 'inventor' of the Caspari style - strong outlines and large areas of light colors in one shade. This is still a dominant style in the children's illustration.
Harry Clarke (1889-1931)
This illustration is from Clarke's take on Classic Fairy Tales from Charles Perrault, published by George G. Harrap & Co.
Herbert Cole (1867-1930)
Cole's illustration comes from Fairy Gold: A Book of Old English Fairy Tales, published by J. M. Dent & Sons in 1906. Considering the history of the fairy tale explained at the beginning, it's another proof of how just about everybody adopted the Red Riding Hood as their own.
William Wallace Denslow (1856-1915)
W. W. Denslow not only illustrated but rewrote Little Red Riding Hood to completely avoid the gore parts and use it as a whimsical explanation of why and how wolves turned into dogs. The whole picture book in digitized version is available here:
https://wwdenslow.weebly.com/little-red-riding-hood.html
Thomas Edward Donnison (1861-0907)
Donnison was another writer-illustrator who is best known as a caricaturist. His Old Fairy Tales told Anew features classic fairy tales reduced to one page with one illustration and a few humorous lines.
John Doyle (1797-1868)
John Doyle was a satirical illustrator who portrayed Red Riding Hood as Perrault suggested - a girl being a victim by a stronger man. His drawing was originally made in black and white and colorized by an unknown artist later.
Paula Ebner (1873-1949)
Pauli Ebner illustrated numerous fairy tales from the collection by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. She also created picture postcards with children in different situations as her favorite theme.
Edmund Evans (1826-1905)
While Edmund Evans occasionally illustrated stories, it's very likely this series is work by one of the less popular illustrators or other workers in his company. He was primarily an engraver and printer with a great sense of the impact of technological advances on business development. According to the style of the presented picture, they could be done by early Kate Greenaway.
Fedor Flinzer (1832-1911)
Making an illustration from several smaller images was especially popular in times when each color was printed separately and printed pages (after several sessions of drying) manually inserted in the book.
Peter Gibson Thomson (1851-1931)
These two illustrations are part of five colored illustrations from the picture book which belongs to Mary Bell's Series, published around 1885.
Warwick Goble (1862-1943)
Goble illustrated The Fairy Book in 1913. It features numerous fairy tales and 32 color plates by the same artist.
Felix de Gray (1889-1925)
Felix de Gray was an impressionist painter, portraitist, illustrator, and designer. Watercolors were his favorite media.
John Hassall (1868-1948)
John Hassall illustrated Red Riding Hood on several occasions. The picture above is from the book and the picture below was made for a poster advertising pantomime.
To learn more about this prolific artist, you can visit John Hassall's fan page.
Theodor Herrmann (1881-1926)
Theodor Herrmann was not an illustrator. He created this image of the Red Cap for the decoration of schools.
Maud Humphrey (1868-1940)
Maud Humphrey was one of the top illustrators of her time. She illustrated books but created much more in the areas of magazines, postcards, and ephemera.
Louis Icart (1888-1950)
Icart's first success was in fashion. He was frequently hired by different fashion houses and magazines. His take on Red Riding Hood is a fine example of his style.
Martin Kronheim (1810-1896)
Joseph Martin Kronheim was a designer, an innovator, a lithographer, and a printer who very likely collaborated with several people on the presented picture.
Otto Kubel (1868-1951)
Otto Kubel often created illustrations for picture books and postcards at the same time. His Red Cap is a typical example.
Carl Larsson (1853-1919)
Carl Olof Larsson is today considered a typical Swedish representative of the Arts and Crafts movement.
John Lawson (1868–1909)
Lawson's work is an oil painting, not an illustration.
Curt Liebich (1868-1937)
Liebich started his artistic career as a landscape painter and soon expanded to portraying scenes from rural life. He illustrated for magazines and postcards, as well.
Henry Liverseege (1802-1832)
Folklore was Liverseege's first big love. Unfortunately, he suffered from asthma and died young, so we will never know where his artistic career would bring him.
Frederic Theodore Lix (1830-1897)
Lix belonged to the Romantic movement. His favorite genre was historical painting.
Emil Lohse (1885-1949)
Ernst Emil Lohse covered a wide area of interest. Among other things, he was an art historian, folklorist, and, of course, painter. This illustration comes from Over the Mountains - 12 pictures by Emil Lohse based on fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm.
William Henry Margetson (1861-1940)
Margetson illustrated Red Riding Hood for Favourite Stories from Grimm, published around 1905.
Achille Lucien Mauzan (1883-1952)
This French poster artist created numerous picture cards for different occasions. His favorite subject were young girls, which are, surpririse, surprise, so often in main roles of classic fairy tales.
This vintage card comes from the series of four cards with scenes from Red Riding Hood, which, again, is a part of the series of at least six fairy tales by Charles Perrault. As you can notice, the same card was used as a happy new year postcard.
Paul Meyerheim (1842-1915)
Professor Paul Friedrich Meyerheim was famous for his paintings of animals. This illustration was created as a line drawing and colorized later by an unknown artist.
Clara Miller Burd (1873-1933)
C. M. Burd, as she mostly signed her works, was a notable illustrator but also a very successful glass designer.
Viktor Paul Mohn (1842-1911)
Mohn was a representative of Late Romanticism, influenced by Ludwig Richter, and very interested in legends and fairy tales.
Jenny Nystrom (1854-1946)
Jenny Nystrom created mostly for magazines and picture postcards. Little Red Riding Hood above belongs to the series of postcards with fairy tale themes.
Katharine Pyle (1863-1938)
Howard Pyle's younger sister built a career as an author for young audiences and illustrator, as well.
Arthur Rackham (1867-1939)
Rackham illustrated Grimm's fairy tales on several occasions. The illustration above comes from the 1920 edition of Hansel & Grethel & Other Stories, published by Constable & Co., London.
Louis John Rhead (1857-1926)
Louis Rhead illustrated and decorated Grimm's Fairy Tales, Stories and Tales of Elves, Goblins, and Fairies by Brothers Grimm in 1917 for Books Inc., New York.
Charles Robinson (1870-1937)
Robinson's illustrations are fine examples of Art Nouveau style with a lot of curves and vibrant colors.
Harry Rountree (1878-1950)
Rountree created this picture of Red Cap for My Book of Best Fairy Tales in 1915.
Franziska Schenkel (1880–1945)
Schenkel's illustration of the Red Cap is another example of Art Nouveau, but German artists called it Jugendstil.
Arpath Emil Schmidhammer (1857-1921)
Schmidhammer was a prolific illustrator, writer, and caricaturist who worked for publishers of books and magazines.
Fritz Schoen (1871-1951)
Schoen is another illustrator who also worked in different areas. In his case, these were advertising, painting, and interior design. This illustration was done for a series of trading cards.
Hermann Seeger (1857-1945)
Hermann Seeger painted mostly with oil on canvas and other substrates.
Evelyn Stuart Hardy (1865-1935)
Grimm’s Fairy Tales illustrated by E. S. Hardy, were published by London publisher Ernest Nister in 1928.
Henri Thiriet (1873-1946)
Thiriet illustrated Perrault's Fairy Tales for L. Martinet in Paris in 1930 with almost 30 illustrations in color.
Harrison Weir (1824-1906)
This antique picture book was published in 1865 by Routledge & Sons, London.
Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935)
Jessie Willcox Smith illustrated Red Riding Hood on different occasions, including the Smith's Premium calendar.
Ernst Zimmer (1864-1924)
Zimmer's illustration comes from Jugendhort's anthology The Most Beautiful Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, published in 1904.
Here we are - at the end of the list of almost 70 Public Domain color illustrations of Little Red Riding Hood (not always little and often with the cap instead of the hood), created by the greatest masters. Will you tell your friends and motivate me to build it up to one hundred?