Cervantès, Don Quichotte, Retirez-vous, Seigneur Don Quichotte ; la pauvre enfant ne reviendra point à elle tant que votre grâce restera là. Tome 2, ch.46

First edition. Wood engraving signed on 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, accompanied by 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, an avid hispanophile, who would recount their journey in his Voyage en Espagne.
Doré went there primarily for the illustration of 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 working sessions with Louis Viardot, translator of Cervantes' text.
Cervantes' novel is among the most illustrated narratives in European literature, but Doré wanted to surpass his predecessors (Tony Johannot, Grandville, Daumier...). Upon its publication in 1863, the work would receive unanimous praise, notably from Emile Zola: "They call that illustrating a work: I maintain that it's remaking 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 about Gustave Doré on the Gallica website