Cervantès, Don Quichotte, S'il vous plaît, seigneur, de devenir notre hôte, vous serez accueilli avec courtoisie et libéralité. Tome 2, ch.58

First edition. Wood engraving signed in the plate by the artist. Pale foxing in the upper margin not affecting the engraving.
Plate created specifically for the illustration of Don Quixote by Cervantes 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: "Je me rends donc dans la patrie de cet illustre hidalgo pour étudier tous les lieux qu'il a parcourus et remplis de ses exploits et faire ainsi une chose qui aura son parfum local" ["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 counts among the most illustrated stories in European literature, but Doré wanted to surpass his predecessors (Tony Johannot, Grandville, Daumier...). When it appeared in 1863, the work would be the subject of unanimous praise, notably from Émile Zola: "On appelle ça illustrer un ouvrage : moi, je prétends que c'est le refaire. Au lieu d'un chef-d'oeuvre, l'esprit humain en compte deux" ["They call that illustrating a work: I maintain that it is remaking it. Instead of one masterpiece, the human spirit 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