Shepherd Wolf, Gustave Doré
Link is to WikiArt, from this page.
19th century illustrator and printmaker Guatave Doré is noted primarily for his dramatic illustrations for Dante’s Devine Comedy and Inferno, Milton’s Paradise Lost and Cervantes Don Quijote, as well as The Bible.
Less well known are his illustrations for Shakespeare plays, other epic poems and a number of fables and fairy tales.
This wonderfully sly example is from his illustrations for Fables of La Fontaine (link is to Dover book of just the illustrations).
I love the delicately rendered plants, the wonderfully casual hatching in the handling of the clouds and foreground, and the “WTF?” expression on the foremost sheep. As always, Doré and his engraver exhibit a mastery of establishing value with cross hatching.
I’ll leave it to you to wonder if there is any connection to current events.
