Chez Don Quichotte, Armor Still Life after Hippolyte Delanoy, circa 1880

A dark, theatrical still life of armor and old books, lettered "Chez Don Quichotte", that is, "At Don Quixote's". A full suit of plate armor stands in deep shadow at the upper right, its helmeted head turned away from the viewer. Below it, a closed helmet sits on a heap of objects: a large open folio whose pages carry small framed illustrations, a metal bowl, a cylindrical canister, further volumes stacked and spilling across the floor, a rounded metal vessel and a tall leather-covered case with a cloth thrown over its top. Light enters from the left and picks out the curved surfaces of the steel and the pale edges of the pages, while the background falls away almost to black.

The title turns the arrangement into a portrait without a sitter. Cervantes' hero lost his wits reading romances of chivalry and rode out in a suit of old armor, and the painter imagines the room where that happened: books open, helmet waiting, the knight himself suggested only by the empty armor in the gloom. The composition is signed "H. Delanoy" in the image at lower left. Hippolyte Delanoy was a French painter of still life, and his name is printed as the running head on the reverse of this leaf, above French letterpress text that shows faintly through the paper. The credit "Pho. Yves & Barret" at lower right is that of the Paris photo-engraving firm that made the printing block.

Technically this is a photomechanical relief print, a process used by French illustrated publications to reproduce an artist's drawing directly. The grainy, crayon-like texture of the original survives in the print, especially in the soft darks around the armor, and the italic title is set in type below the image.

A moody, literary subject like this suits a library, a study or a reading corner, and a narrow black or dark wood frame with a wide cream mat would emphasize its shadows.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.