All Resolutions
Artist
- Name:
- Doré, Gustave
- Dates:
- 1832-1883
- Country:
- France
Illustration
- Subject:
- Narratives
- Technique:
- Wood engraving
- Engraver:
- Riault, Paul
- Format:
- Portrait (taller)
- Source:
- Old Book Illustrations
Book
- Title:
- Les contes drolatiques (Doré)
- Author(s):
- Balzac, Honoré de
- Publisher:
- Paris: Garnier Frères, 1881
- Open Library:
- View record.
Description
A man is victim of a street ambush, having been shot with countless arrows. He falls back against a wall and tries to draw his sword in a last and useless attempt to defend himself. Above him, another man in a soldier’s or guard’s outfit leans out of a window and pierces him with a pike. Two people are witnessing the scene from the streetside window of a turret half-covered by shadow.
This picture is an illustration for the story, “The High Constable’s Wife” from Droll Stories. The victim of the ambush is the character named Savoisy, son of the chamberlain to King Charles VI. The woman watching the scene from the turret window is High Constable of Armagnac’s wife.
The caption reads in the original French: Ah ! feit la comtesse en blanchissant de terreur, savoisy meurt pour moy !
The translation provided here is from the edition published in London by the Bibliophilist Society, 1874.
Keywords: 1880s, 19th century, black & white, cityscape, Contes drolatiques, crime, death, fight, medieval
