Broadside with 48 scenes showing the life of Robinson Caruso
1860
Medium
Wood engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 16 15/16 × 11 13/16 in. (43 × 30 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Max G. Wildnauer Fund, 1978
Accession Number
1978.643.49(1)
Tags
Art Historical Context
This captivating wood engraving broadside, by Spanish artist José María Marés 1860, presents 48 intricate vignettes chronicling the adventures of Robinson Crusoe, the shipwrecked protagonist from Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel. about 17 by 12 inches, the large single-sheet print unfolds Crusoe's tale of survival—from stormy seas and shipwrecks to island ingenuity with boats, tools, animals, and laborious self-reliance. Tags like "Men," "Working," "Boats," and "Animals" highlight the bustling scenes of human endeavor amid nature's trials. Wood engraving, a precise 19th-century technique using end-g...
About the Artist
José María Marés · 1850–1870
José María Marés was a Spanish printer, publisher, and broadside producer active in Madrid from approximately 1850 to 1870. Operating first from addresses on the Calle de Relatores and later from the Plazuela de la Cebada under the imprint Imprenta de Marés y Compañía, he ran one of the more prolific popular-print establishments in mid-nineteenth-century Madrid. His presses produced illustrated br...