Charles Perrault, Contes, La Barbe bleue, "Ils lui passèrent leur épée au travers du corps" - 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 the engraver. Composition created by Gustave Doré and engraved by Héliodore Pisan 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.
Worming in margins not touching the engraving.
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 scene 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 time 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 narrative object. 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 none before and like none to come. (...) I can only say that these drawings seem very beautiful to me, richly and opulently executed, having a grandiose character that renews the aspect of these humble tales and restores their original wonder that predates even Perrault."]