Terms and conditions of use
Don Quixote
(Don Quichotte)
1893
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Measurements
- 111.0 × 156.0 cm
- Inscription
- inscribed in black paint l.l.: 1893 adrien Demont
- Accession Number
- p.399.5-1
- Department
- International Painting
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1893
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited - Gallery location
- Not on display
- About this work
-
In nineteenth-century France the reading of popular fiction was thought to carry particular risks. The perils of falling prey to romantic delusions were hilariously illustrated by ‘Don Quixote de la Mancha’, the anti-hero of Miguel de Cervantes’ 1615 novel. Enraptured by stories of knights Don Quixote decides to abandon his role as a country gentleman to embark on a life of adventure. Demont here reinforces Quixote’s delusional state by painting a virtual cavalry in the clouds, a vision Quixote shares with the viewer, but perhaps not his squire Sancho Panza, and his horse who quietly grazes undisturbed by the charging forces above.
- Subjects (general)
- History and Legend Human Figures Literary and Text
- Subjects (specific)
- armour (protective wear) Don Quixote (novel, Cervantes, 1605-1615) horse (species) knights (landholders) men (male humans) Quixote, Don (Spanish literary character, Cervantes, 1605) squires stories (literature genre)
- Provenance
-
Exhibited Salon, Paris, 1893, no. 551; from where purchased, by John Longstaff, for the NGV, 1893.
Exhibited: Salon, Paris, 1893, no. 551.
