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Gustave Doré, After the Shipwreck - Design for an Illustration of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles · Digital image courtesy of Getty's Open Content ProgramView original →
Gustave Doré

After the Shipwreck - Design for an Illustration of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

about 1875

Current Collection

J. Paul Getty Museum

Los Angeles, United States

Medium
Gouache
Dimensions
50.8 × 40.5 cm
Status
In Museum Collection
Collect24 Art ID
C24-214197

>I took the oars: the Pilot's boy, >Who now doth crazy go, >Laughed loud and long, and all the while >His eyes went to and fro >"Ha! Ha!" quoth he, "full plain I see, >The Devil knows how to row." > >--Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from *The Rime of the Ancient Mariner*. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem *The Rime of the Ancient Mariner* recounts the tale of a young mariner's supernatural adventures at sea. This watercolor is a study for one of thirty-eight images that artist Gustave Doré created to illustrate editions of the poem published in 1875 and 1876. This scene takes place near the end of the poem (lines 564-569), after the Mariner is forever cursed for shooting an albatross. This slaughter triggers a curse that causes the death of the Mariner's entire crew, forcing him to navigate the seas alone for seven days and nights. This image illustrates the moment the masts of Mariner's ship disappear into a mighty white froth, shown at the center left. A pilot and his son have just rescued the Mariner, but thought him dead. When the Mariner instead takes the oars, as seen here at center, the men think he is the Devil and go insane. Doré depicts one…

Provenance

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Registry history

  • about 1875 — Recorded in the collection of J. Paul Getty Museum — drawings

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