ERECTION OF THE CROSS 1885 Gustave Doré - Adolphe Gusmand ANTIQUE ENGRAVING

Original 9 3/4 inch x 7 3/4 inch Engraving titled THE ERECTION OF THE CROSS.

”M. Doré has been very succesful in his treatment of this subject. The figures are well planted and grouped, and the three Roman soliers in the left-hand corner, playing at dice, intensify the tragic feeling by the contrast of a heartless levity. A number of half-clad men heave and drag the weighty frame-work of timber into a perpendicular position; the patient figure nailed to the upper part looks down upon the crowd below; Mary sinks fainting, and overcome with grief, into the arms of two women, one of whom glances up at Jesus, while the second weeps upon the shoulder of the mother; some mounted Roman legionaries gaze sternly on the scene; and to the right of the picture is seen one of the crosses to which the thieves were hung.”

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 Gusmand (1821 - 1905). Wood-engraver, draughtsman and poet, born in Paris and best known for his prints after Gustave Doré .

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.