ELIJAH NOURISHED BY AN ANGEL 1885 Gustave Doré - Pannemaker ANTIQUE ENGRAVING

Original 9 3/4 inch x 7 3/4 inch Engraving titled ELIJAH NOURISHED BY AN ANGEL.

”In the illustration Elijah lies faint and despairing under a bank; all round him stretches the dry and sandy desert, with scraps of spiky vegetation, while above, through the white-hot, luminous air, tremulous with the vibrating sun-fire, comes the floating brightness of the angel. The scene is very Eastern and visionary; and the vapoury softness with which the angel seems to shape itself out of the air, is singularly beautiful.”

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 Adolphe François Pannemaker (1822 - 1900). Wood engraver. Graduate of Ecole Royale in Brussels. He went to Paris and worked there for more than 30 years, especially as book illustrator, often working with his son and pupil, Stéphane Pannemaker (1847-1930), especially on reproductions of Gustave Doré's book illlustrations and A. Doms, a wood-engraver who occasionally worked in collaboration with Pannemaker.

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.