Charles Perrault, Contes, Peau d'Âne, "Il vint des rois de tous les pays" - Gravure originale sur bois debout, tirée sur chine et contrecollée sur vergé de Hollande

Original wood engraving signed in the plate by the artist and engraver. Composition executed by Gustave Doré and engraved by Hébert on China paper and mounted on Holland laid paper at the request of publisher Hetzel to illustrate his folio edition of Perrault's Contes in 1862.
Fold in the lower left corner and very rare and pale worming.
These illustrations of the Contes are considered the most successful of 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 paramount; 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 such as there never was before and such as will never be seen again. (...) I can only say that these drawings seem very beautiful to me, richly and opulently executed, that they have a grandiose character that renews the aspect of these humble tales and restores to them their original wonder that predates Perrault himself."]