The story of Don Quixote of La Mancha was originally published as two books
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605 and 1615.
The early editions of the tale were illustrated anonymously, and reproduced as relatively
unsophisticated woodcuts. This was the infancy of printed narrative illustration and many of
the visual devices and principles we now take for granted had yet to be developed.
And it's this woven tapestry from a series made in London in 1675
which represents arguably the most compelling and entertaining early visualisation of the story.
In the 18th century, there were clear signs of increased sensitivity in the use of illustration
and in 1725 an edition was published in London
featuring the work of French artist Charles Antoine Coypel, and engraved by James Mynde.
Coypel was also responsible for creating the drawings which were used as the basis of
another series of tapestries produced a few years later by the Jacques Neilson workshop in Paris.
Printed colour was still a distant dream, but artists such as John Vanderbank,
who painted several scenes from the story also used the wood engraving process
to produce a series of lively printed monochromes in 1742.
British artist and printmaker William Hogarth created a set of 6 etchings of scenes from the
Don Quixote narrative in 1756, which were sold as limited editions to collectors,
some of which were coloured by hand, for those wealthy enough to afford them.
And Antonio Carnecero published a Spanish edition of engravings in 1780,
which were exceptionally fine demonstrations of the skilful handling of the engraving process.
In the first half of the 19th century stone lithography was invented,
but many illustrators including the satirical cartoonist George Cruikshank
stuck with engraving for his 1837 humorous edition.
Lithography was more widespread in France at this time and Célestin
Nanteuil used the method to create an edition published in 1855.
Like John Vanderbank, French artist Gustave Doré also painted scenes from the book
but in 1863 he also produced what is generally considered to be the
ultimate and arguably most enduring dramatic illustrated visualisation of Don Quixote.
But however remarkable Doré's undoubted visual prowess was, these timeless illustrations also
owed an immense debt to the engraver Héliodore Pisan, whose technical skill converted Doré's
more gestural pen and ink drawings into astonishingly detailed woodcuts.
Similarly the 1866 edition based on the more comical drawings of Arthur Boyd Houghton
was engraved by the Dalziel Brothers, whose talent for graphic
transcription was easily the most sought after in Victorian London.
In 1879 the Catalan illustrator Apeles Mestres
created what may well be the earliest colour edition of the story,
and given that full colour lithography wouldn't be possible for another 20 years this highly
imaginative visualisation must have been created by the more demanding chromolithographic process.
2 decades later in 1897 William Heath Robinson, who was among the earliest to take
advantage of monochrome photolithography, published the first of two editions,
with a series of expressive more minimalist pen and ink drawings .
And a year later the more traditionally inclined Walter Crane published his version,
which although printed in colour was created to evoke the woodcut techniques of earlier times.
British comic artist Tom Browne first published his knockabout comic strip
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in the same year,
and it ran successfully for several decades, drawn by others when Browne died in 1910.
Heath Robinson's second edition of Don Quixote was published in 1902.
And as well as the expressive line drawing he had made his reputation with,
there were also several particularly engaging colour pages created in ink
and watercolour, and one of the earliest to be printed using full colour offset lithography.
And the comedic potential of the story was also well to the fore in a series of
crudely printed comic postcards created in 1905 by Spanish cartoonist Pedro de Rojas.
And this series brought the characters into comical collision with 20th century inventions.
By this time full colour printing was fairly widespread in illustrated books,
and many, such as the now forgotten British illustrator Stephen Baghot De La Bere,
took advantage of this with a series of light comic watercolours in the same year.
1912 saw the publication of a French edition which featured a some highly
distinctive desaturated colour illustrations by the equally forgotten Thomas Derrick.
During the years of the Great War book publication reduced dramatically
and the only significant edition I've found from the time is a series of dark
and dramatic expressionist woodcuts by German Walther Klemm in 1914.
And in the years following the war new versions were few and far between,
although British illustrator Gordon Browne published a very traditional looking
but nevertheless visually engaging series of pen drawings in 1921.
The extent to which 20th century illustration had become stylistically diverse
was clearly demonstrated only 4 years later in 1926 by the French cartoonist Gus Bofa.
His edition contained a series of highly distinctive comic line and wash illustrations
which pushed the possibilities of humorous abstraction to its very limits.
And only 2 years later in 1930 veteran French illustrator Felix Lorioux
also published a particularly attractive series of watercolours for a children's edition of the tale.
The more modernist book illustrators were definitely on the rise by now,
and as if to underline this point in 1930 American ex-patriot Edward
McKnight Kauffer, usually known for his fragmented modernist posters,
released an altogether more challenging edition a long way distant from conventional representation.
Not quite as extreme and far more humorous , Piero Bernardini's 1935 Italian version nevertheless
also featured angular modernist images, some of which were created in attractive subdued colours,
and monochromes which were about as minimal and geometric as could be imagined.
A year later Japanese artist and illustrator Serizawa Keisuke
created a visually engrossing, but to western eyes hard to follow woodblock print version,
which translated Don Quixote into an ageing Samurai in 17th century Japan.
In 1939 in Germany a collection of comical cigarette cards combining painterly techniques
with cartoon anatomy was published by the obscure comic artist Stefan Mart,
but that was also the year the war began.
And as in the previous conflict, the publication of frivolous fiction was conspicuous by its
absence, although in the USA in 1941 German immigrant Hans Mueller published an expressive
and imaginative reading of the tale with woodcuts using limited well chosen colour palettes.
When the war ended in 1945 French illustrator
Jacques Touchet published a particularly atmospheric ink and watercolour edition
which nicely blended comic art stylings with more representational techniques.
And in the following year 2 wildly different interpretations demonstrating
the enduring appeal of the story were published.
In America a condensed comic book version was created by
the obviously talented but obscure Louis Zansky.
And at the other end of the cultural spectrum the artist Salvador Dali
produced a typically disturbing series of surreal lithographs and etchings.
In 1950 French illustrator Edy Legrand created one of the most compelling and
personal interpretations for a limited edition published by Heritage Press.
His spidery line work was highly descriptive and the application of drab but tasteful colour
combined to produce a highly compelling visualisation of the story.
And in 1954 Italian illustrator Antonio Traverso created another particularly memorable
interpretation with a series of dynamically composed and distinctively styled watercolours.
1966 was the 350th anniversary of Cervantes' death
and to honour his memory a lavish limited edition was published featuring the paintings of seminal
Spanish fantasy artist José Segrelles, who although 80 years old at the time
had evidently lost none of his talent for dramatically lit narrative illustration.
In 1968 his compatriot Roc Riera Rojas produced an engrossing illustrated edition
with a series of expressionistic but comedic compositions. These images successfully
combined an angular drawn style with a wide range of painterly techniques and textures.
And Russian illustrator and artist Sacha Brodsky also published a similarly personal
and remarkably angular series of bleak but stylish monochromes in 1976.
In 1999 the last edition of the 20th century was published.
Re-told by Michael Harrison it featured a series of extremely well observed pen
and watercolour renders by the revered historical illustrator Victor Ambrus.
His images were a perfect blend of traditional draughtsmanship and expressive execution.
2005 was the 400th anniversary of the first publication of Don Quixote,
and in its honour the Mexican artist known as Eko published a commemorative series
of 20 highly imaginative surreal woodcuts.
And as if to underline the diversity of contemporary illustration children's
illustrator Quentin Blake created his own amusing limited edition version in the same year.
In 2010 Chris Riddell created a finely inked and highly plausible series
for a re-telling by Martin Jenkins, and although manifestly comedic his
pen and watercolour illustrations were exceptionally well observed and drawn.
And only a year later American Tom Lathrop's re-titled Misadventures of Don Quixote
was published, with pen and wash illustrations by Mad magazine's comic artist Jack Davis,
whose prowess was obviously undiminished even at the age of 86.
Also in 2011 Rob Davis published his globally popular 2 volume graphic novelisation of the story
featuring many dynamic pages using particularly well chosen colour palettes.
And to draw this video to its conclusion here are two remarkably
dissimilar interpretations from 2018. In that year Venezuelan Roberto Weil produced
an agreeably offbeat and distinctive version using a comic strip format.
And Spanish digital illustrator Daniel Belchi Lorente
created a considerably more representational but highly atmospheric series for an edition in China.
So it seems that 400 years after its first publication
Cervante's mock heroic fantasy continues to resonate
with more generations of illustrators eager to create their own visualisations.
And I for one very much hope it continues to do so.