Sketch of Two Grotesque Faces with Gaping Mouths

This drawing entered the collection along with a copy of Dore's illustrated 1873 edition of the Works of Rabelais (PML128505-06) and a collection of 268 of the artist's woodblocks and electrotypes for the 1873 and later editions of Rabelais he illustrated (PML 128507.1-269). Rabelais (1494-1553), a French Renaissance physician and writer, is best known for two satirical tales devoted to the childhood of the giants Gargantua and his son Pantagruel. Doré's skill as an illustrator gave definitive form to the tale's outrageous and often gross aspects.
This image, along with a second drawing from the same cache (2000.52:2), apparently was not used for the publication, although the composition of a group of grotesque heads clustered together is similar to others that appear in the Rabelais edition.