DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36582#0052
26
THE DO RE GALLERY.
realism is too much for the figment with which it is associated, and the latter loses, while
the former does not gain, by the partnership. Even in those illustrations where the
characters are all brutes or birds, the style is too ambitious to suit the grave simplicity of
fable. Yet many of the designs, considered in themselves, are admirable. They form a
series of effective pictures, and the smaller drawings, introduced as vignettes, are full of
delicate bits of landscape, lightly yet exquisitely touched with the mastery of a practised
hand.
“ Croquemitaine ” and “The Fairy Realm” contain striking specimens of M. Dore’s
fanciful and humorous invention. The first is a grotesque romance of Charlemagne and
his knights, and of the Saracens who threatened the north-west of Europe with sub-
jugation in the reign of the great Emperor. The martial adventures of Christian and
Moslem heroes are interspersed with the still wilder features of a fairy tale—enchanted
castles, giants and magicians, ghosts and hobgoblins ; all of which M. Dore has represented
in a true spirit of enjoyment, blending the horrible with the droll, the picturesque with
the extravagant, until we seem to have entered some phantom world where everything is
possible but the probable. In “The Fairy Realm” we find this versatile artist realising
the leading incidents of our old familiar nursery tales in a set of vivid pictures. “ The
Sleeping Beauty,” “ Little Red Riding Hood,” “ Puss in Boots,” “ Cinderella,” and “ Hop
o’ my Thumb,” are the stories illustrated, and some of the designs are quite seductive in
their elfin grace. Particularly excellent is “The Sleeping Beauty.’ The chief points in
that fascinating legend are very poetically interpreted, and we wander with the handsome
young prince through a stately world of marvels. We view the strange old castle within
and without; see it from afar, with its towers and peaks muffled in shadowy woodland, and
glimmering across ravines and rocky glens; approach its mysterious portals up avenues of
trees that make a solemn twilight out of sun and shadow; note the wild vegetation of a
hundred years twining round pillar and buttress, or wreathing oriel windows with quainter
tracery than their own; pass through the slumberous rooms and echoing courts ; and stand
beside the lovely princess in her bed, with creepers tangling over wall and floor, and great
beams of light slanting in from the high casements, warming the carven figures on the vast
heraldic mantelpiece, and prophesying that the end of the long sleep has come. Nothing
can be more dreamy, remote, and magical than these designs ; and the man who retains
anything of his childhood’s love of the wonderful will appreciate them even more than the
younger generation. “ Hop o’ my Thumb ” also contains some beautiful drawings, and
the childish figure in “ Little Red Riding Hood ” is full of infantine sweetness. M. Dore
is not without some formidable rivals in the illustration of these stories. Our own country-
man, Mr. George Cruikshank, has exhibited a remarkable capacity in this respect. In the
quainter regions of elf-land he is perhaps unrivalled; but M. Dore is more elegant and
more pictorial. It is the difference between the rough, abrupt, German intensity of the
Brothers Grimm, and the ornate and courtly elaboration of Madame d’Aulnoys.
THE DO RE GALLERY.
realism is too much for the figment with which it is associated, and the latter loses, while
the former does not gain, by the partnership. Even in those illustrations where the
characters are all brutes or birds, the style is too ambitious to suit the grave simplicity of
fable. Yet many of the designs, considered in themselves, are admirable. They form a
series of effective pictures, and the smaller drawings, introduced as vignettes, are full of
delicate bits of landscape, lightly yet exquisitely touched with the mastery of a practised
hand.
“ Croquemitaine ” and “The Fairy Realm” contain striking specimens of M. Dore’s
fanciful and humorous invention. The first is a grotesque romance of Charlemagne and
his knights, and of the Saracens who threatened the north-west of Europe with sub-
jugation in the reign of the great Emperor. The martial adventures of Christian and
Moslem heroes are interspersed with the still wilder features of a fairy tale—enchanted
castles, giants and magicians, ghosts and hobgoblins ; all of which M. Dore has represented
in a true spirit of enjoyment, blending the horrible with the droll, the picturesque with
the extravagant, until we seem to have entered some phantom world where everything is
possible but the probable. In “The Fairy Realm” we find this versatile artist realising
the leading incidents of our old familiar nursery tales in a set of vivid pictures. “ The
Sleeping Beauty,” “ Little Red Riding Hood,” “ Puss in Boots,” “ Cinderella,” and “ Hop
o’ my Thumb,” are the stories illustrated, and some of the designs are quite seductive in
their elfin grace. Particularly excellent is “The Sleeping Beauty.’ The chief points in
that fascinating legend are very poetically interpreted, and we wander with the handsome
young prince through a stately world of marvels. We view the strange old castle within
and without; see it from afar, with its towers and peaks muffled in shadowy woodland, and
glimmering across ravines and rocky glens; approach its mysterious portals up avenues of
trees that make a solemn twilight out of sun and shadow; note the wild vegetation of a
hundred years twining round pillar and buttress, or wreathing oriel windows with quainter
tracery than their own; pass through the slumberous rooms and echoing courts ; and stand
beside the lovely princess in her bed, with creepers tangling over wall and floor, and great
beams of light slanting in from the high casements, warming the carven figures on the vast
heraldic mantelpiece, and prophesying that the end of the long sleep has come. Nothing
can be more dreamy, remote, and magical than these designs ; and the man who retains
anything of his childhood’s love of the wonderful will appreciate them even more than the
younger generation. “ Hop o’ my Thumb ” also contains some beautiful drawings, and
the childish figure in “ Little Red Riding Hood ” is full of infantine sweetness. M. Dore
is not without some formidable rivals in the illustration of these stories. Our own country-
man, Mr. George Cruikshank, has exhibited a remarkable capacity in this respect. In the
quainter regions of elf-land he is perhaps unrivalled; but M. Dore is more elegant and
more pictorial. It is the difference between the rough, abrupt, German intensity of the
Brothers Grimm, and the ornate and courtly elaboration of Madame d’Aulnoys.