Gustave DORÉ

DORé Gustave & RABELAIS François. œuvres de Rabelais [Rabelais' Works]
Garnier Frères, Paris 1873, 31 x 43 cm, 2 volumes, contemporary morocco

Contemporary red morocco by J. B. Pingot, Jansenist spines in five compartments, double gilt fillet on the edges of the covers and headpieces, large gilt dentelle frame to inside covers, double marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.
A superb copy of one of the most beautiful books illustrated by Gustave Doré on grand papier (deluxe copies), luxuriously bound in red morocco.

First edition. Wood engraving signed in the plate by the artist.

Plate created specifically for the illustration of Cervantes' Don Quixote for the Hachette edition of 1863.

Gustave Doré first traveled to Spain in 1855, in the company of Théophile Gautier and publisher Paul Dalloz. In 1861, responding to a commission from the journal Le Tour du monde, he returned there with Baron Jean Charles Davillier, a knowledgeable hispanophile, who would recount their journey in his Voyage en Espagne.
Doré went there primarily with a view to illustrating Don Quixote: "I am therefore going to the homeland of this illustrious hidalgo to study all the...