Created 13-Nov-18
SPAIN, Gustave Doré (illustrator). 1st Edition. New York: Scribner, Welford and Armstrong, 1876. Written by the Baron Ch. Davillier, Translated by J. Thomson. First US edition in English.
A grand tour of Spain was long a firm desire of Gustave Doré. In 1862 he realized his desire accompanied by Baron Charles Davillier who had visited the country many times. Together the two toured the countryside descibed by Cervantes in "Don Quixote" as it was Doré's intention to create a collection of illustrations for that work, which he did. The illustrations here, however, are an additional collection which he created as he became enchanted with the country and its people.
Although this book came out in 1874 [the first French edition], the illustrations for it began to be published in 1862. It was a serial that ran for 12 years! As previously noted, when Doré went to Spain in 1862 to do the Don Quixote illustrations, he was fascinated with the people and culture of Spain creating scores of illustrations unrelated to Cervantes' work. So in 1862, Tour du Monde began a serial on Spain with Doré's engravings and text by Baron Charles Davillier.
Altogether Doré did 164 full-page plates and 160 vignettes for Spain, completing it in 1873. When Hachette published it in a 10 1/2 x 14 [inches] book form in 1874, it contained 306 of the 324 magazine engravings, and two of those were new.
The first English book edition of Spain finally came out in 1876. It contained 235 of the 306 engravings in the French book edition. There were only three English book editions; 1876 S. Low, 1876 Scribner, and 1881 Bickers. But English readers had been seeing those illustrations long before the official book version came out. In fact, in the 20 years from 1869-1888, there were at least 15 different titles containing some Doré Spain engravings.
While there are only about a dozen editions with the original Davillier text, there are about 70 editions with some of Doré's Spain engravings used with about 30 different texts, including those by Alexandre Dumas, Theophile Gautier, Edmondo de Amicis, William Prescott and Ernest Hemingway.
To view the engravings full screen click on "Slideshow" below.
A grand tour of Spain was long a firm desire of Gustave Doré. In 1862 he realized his desire accompanied by Baron Charles Davillier who had visited the country many times. Together the two toured the countryside descibed by Cervantes in "Don Quixote" as it was Doré's intention to create a collection of illustrations for that work, which he did. The illustrations here, however, are an additional collection which he created as he became enchanted with the country and its people.
Although this book came out in 1874 [the first French edition], the illustrations for it began to be published in 1862. It was a serial that ran for 12 years! As previously noted, when Doré went to Spain in 1862 to do the Don Quixote illustrations, he was fascinated with the people and culture of Spain creating scores of illustrations unrelated to Cervantes' work. So in 1862, Tour du Monde began a serial on Spain with Doré's engravings and text by Baron Charles Davillier.
Altogether Doré did 164 full-page plates and 160 vignettes for Spain, completing it in 1873. When Hachette published it in a 10 1/2 x 14 [inches] book form in 1874, it contained 306 of the 324 magazine engravings, and two of those were new.
The first English book edition of Spain finally came out in 1876. It contained 235 of the 306 engravings in the French book edition. There were only three English book editions; 1876 S. Low, 1876 Scribner, and 1881 Bickers. But English readers had been seeing those illustrations long before the official book version came out. In fact, in the 20 years from 1869-1888, there were at least 15 different titles containing some Doré Spain engravings.
While there are only about a dozen editions with the original Davillier text, there are about 70 editions with some of Doré's Spain engravings used with about 30 different texts, including those by Alexandre Dumas, Theophile Gautier, Edmondo de Amicis, William Prescott and Ernest Hemingway.
To view the engravings full screen click on "Slideshow" below.
© Garry Kessler