PALACE OF SLEEP

Original 9 3/4 inch x 7 3/4 inch Engraving titled THE PALACE OF SLEEP.

”Seen afar in its muffling of thick old trees and all-investing ivy, the Palace of the Sleeping Beauty shows like a vision of romance and drowsihead. Steep craggy banks and pendant forest shades form a noble foreground; and beyond the ravine the fantastic gables of the castle look out from the sleepy vegetation that has overgrown them. Some country people contemplate the haunted old pile from a ledge of the woody mountain.”

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.

Illustration from “Fairy Realm: a Collection of the Favourite Old Tales Told in Verse” published in 1865.

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.