Cervantès, Don Quichotte, Dis-moi, toi qui réponds, était-ce la vérit, était-ce un songe ?. Tome 2, ch. 62

First edition. Wood engraving signed in the plate by the artist. Some light foxing.

Plate specially created 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 places he traveled through and filled with his exploits and thus create something that will have its local flavor". Gustave Doré would thus conduct several work sessions with Louis Viardot, translator of Cervantes' text.
Cervantes' novel ranks among the most illustrated narratives in European literature, but Doré wanted to surpass his predecessors (Tony Johannot, Grandville, Daumier...). When it was published in 1863, the work would be the object of unanimous praise, notably from Emile Zola: "They call that illustrating a work: I maintain that it's recreating it. Instead of one masterpiece, the human spirit now counts two".

See our other engravings by Gustave Doré

Gustave Doré, L'Imaginaire au pouvoir (Musée d'Orsay, 2014)

Virtual exhibition on Gustave Doré on the Gallica website