SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR 1885 Gustave Doré Laurent Hotelin ANTIQUE ENGRAVING

Original 9 3/4 inch x 7 3/4 inch Engraving titled SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR.

”Saul, being beset by the Philistines, and having lost the favour of Heaven, consulted the witch of Endor, who, at his request. raised the ghost of Samuel. From Samuel Saul heard of his coming discomfiture, and fell on the earth in a swoon.”

Illustration by Gustave Doré (1832 - 1883). The most popular and successful French book illustrator of the middle of the 19th century. Doré became widely known for his illustrations to such books as Danté’s Inferno (1861), Don Quixote (1862), and the Bible (1866), and he helped to give European currency to the illustrated book of large format. He was so prolific that at one time he employed more than forty wood engravers. His work is characterized by an eclectic mix of Michelangelesque nudes, northern traditions of sublime landscape, and a highly spirited love of the grotesque and bizarre.

Engraved by Laurent Hotelin. Wood-engraver, from 1844 worked with Adolphe Best as 'Best, Hotelin and Leloir' (and Regnier, in which case they sometimes signed with a monogram).

From Doré’s illustrated edition of the Bible 1866.

This edition from Cassell’s ‘Doré Gallery’ published in 1885.

Page size 12 1/4 inch x 9 1/8 inch

The engraving is in very good condition. Reverse side blank.