COUNTRYMAN AND THE SERPENT

Original 9 3/8 inch x 7 1/2 inch Engraving titled THE COUNTRYMAN AND THE SERPENT.

This fable is levelled against indiscriminate bestowal of charity, and relates the story of a countryman who, finding a snake frozen and half-dead, took it home and warmed it by his fire, when it tried to sting its benefactor, and was starightaway cut to pieces with a hatchet.

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 Félix Jean Gauchard (1825 – 1872). A wood engraver who produced many illustrations after Doré and Brunier.

Jean de La Fontaine (1621 – 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional languages.

After a long period of royal suspicion, he was admitted to the French Academy and his reputation in France has never faded since. Evidence of this is found in the many pictures and statues of the writer, as well as later depictions on medals, coins and postage stamps. .

Illustration for Jean de La Fontaine’s “Fables” published between 1668 to 1694 and illustrated by Doré in 1885.

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 good to very good condition with a few foxing spots. Reverse side blank.