Thursday, August 06, 2009

Doré illustrates Münchhausen

Here are some illustrations from a 1917 copy of Münchhausen which I recently got really cheap on a flea market here in Berlin. The drawings are - obviously - by the incredible Gustave Doré, one of my personal runner-ups for Greatest Graphic Artist of the Known Universe. This is one of his lesser known works, so some of you might not have seen these before. It's been really hard to make a selection from the countless brilliant drawings in the book. I'm not quite pleased with the one presented here, but I think any other would have been equally dissatisfying.



















2 comments:

Aeron said...

Thanks for posting these illustrations, I was familiar with most of them but I don't think I'd seen, or for some reason passed over, that last one. I really love those fantastic creatures in the sky. The insect like thing with the wagon wheels is particularly bizarre!

I am perpetually in shock and amazement at how prolific Doré was in his art. Of all the people in the world to have been such a workaholic, it's a damn good thing he was one of them!

Human Mollusk said...

Your welcome, Aeron. I thought you'd enjoy that last one. It's the most insane one in the book.