François PIERDON, Gustave DORÉ
Charles Perrault, Contes, Le Petit Poucet, "Lorsque les enfants se virent suls, sil se mirent à crier & à pleurer de toutes leurs forces" - Gravure originale sur bois debout, tirée sur chine et contrecollée sur vergé de Hollande
Hetzel|Paris 1862|29.90 x 42.10 cm|une feuille
Original wood engraving signed on the plate by the artist and engraver. Composition created by Gustave Doré and engraved by François Pierdon on China paper and mounted on Dutch laid paper at the request of publisher Hetzel to illustrate his folio edition of Perrault's Contes in 1862.
A pale marginal dampstain, not touching the image, as well as some worming in the margin.
These illustrations for the Contes are considered the most successful for this text: Gustave Doré offers an unprecedented dramatic vision. With him, everything contributes to the dramatization of the tale, from the theatrical staging of the tableau to the smallest details that generate terrifying realism through the technique known as "tinted wood." He uses India ink or gouache, previously diluted as required by the "wash" technique. For Perrault's tales, the eleven best engravers of the period were enlisted to engrave with burin the forty wooden plates: Pannemaker, Pisan, Pierdon, Maurand, Boetzel, Brevière, Hébert, Deschamps, Dumont, Delduc and Fagnon. Gustave Doré's work in illustrating the Contes is essential; he does not reduce engraving to its ornamental function but transforms it into a true object of narration. These illustrations are Doré's most famous works and immediately received enthusiastic reviews, notably that of Sainte-Beuve in Les Nouveaux lundis (December 23, 1861): "Un Perrault comme il n'y en eut jamais jusqu'ici et comme il ne s'en verra plus. (...) Je ne puis que dire que ces dessins me semblent fort beaux, d'un tour riche et opulent, qu'ils ont un caractère grandiose qui renouvelle l'aspect de ces humbles contes et leur rend de leur premier merveilleux antérieur à Perrault même." ["A Perrault like there never was before and as there will never be again. (...) I can only say that these drawings seem very beautiful to me, of a rich and opulent style, that they have a grandiose character that renews the aspect of these humble tales and restores to them their original wonder that preceded even Perrault."]
A pale marginal dampstain, not touching the image, as well as some worming in the margin.
These illustrations for the Contes are considered the most successful for this text: Gustave Doré offers an unprecedented dramatic vision. With him, everything contributes to the dramatization of the tale, from the theatrical staging of the tableau to the smallest details that generate terrifying realism through the technique known as "tinted wood." He uses India ink or gouache, previously diluted as required by the "wash" technique. For Perrault's tales, the eleven best engravers of the period were enlisted to engrave with burin the forty wooden plates: Pannemaker, Pisan, Pierdon, Maurand, Boetzel, Brevière, Hébert, Deschamps, Dumont, Delduc and Fagnon. Gustave Doré's work in illustrating the Contes is essential; he does not reduce engraving to its ornamental function but transforms it into a true object of narration. These illustrations are Doré's most famous works and immediately received enthusiastic reviews, notably that of Sainte-Beuve in Les Nouveaux lundis (December 23, 1861): "Un Perrault comme il n'y en eut jamais jusqu'ici et comme il ne s'en verra plus. (...) Je ne puis que dire que ces dessins me semblent fort beaux, d'un tour riche et opulent, qu'ils ont un caractère grandiose qui renouvelle l'aspect de ces humbles contes et leur rend de leur premier merveilleux antérieur à Perrault même." ["A Perrault like there never was before and as there will never be again. (...) I can only say that these drawings seem very beautiful to me, of a rich and opulent style, that they have a grandiose character that renews the aspect of these humble tales and restores to them their original wonder that preceded even Perrault."]
€90