Imagining Don Quixote

Small exhibition at the British Library to mark 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes the author of Don Quixote.

I hadn’t realised before that Cervantes was a contemporary of Shakespeare! Also that he fought at the Battle of Lepanto! I must read more!

The book is said to me the second most illustrated book after the bible and this exhibition took four key episodes from the book and looked at how different illustrators at the time and since had approached it.

The Gustave Dore illustrations from 1863 are the most famous but the earliest picture in the show was form 1669. There was a fascinating graphic novel by Rob Davis and I was particularly drawn to the illustrations by Salvador Dali in 1946.

Closes 22 May 2016

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