Gustave Doré

Gustave Doré illustrated the 1863 French publication of Cervantes' "L'ingénieux hidalgo don Quichotte de la Manche," published in Paris by Librairie de L. Hachette et Cie. His designs were engraved by Héliodore Joseph Pisan. The same plates were used for an English translation from 1870, "The History of Don Quixote," published in London by Cassell, Petter, and Galpin. The English edition, with its vivid illustrations by Doré, helped popularize Cervantes' tale among British and American audiences.
This scene illustrates a passage from Volume 1, Chapter 21. As it begins to rain, Don Quixote and his peasant squire Sancho Panza spot a man riding towards them with something glistening on his head. Don Quixote is sure the man is a knight riding a steed, and the glistening object is Mambrino's helmet, a mythical gold helmet that makes its wearer invulnerable. Doré depicts the moment that Don Quixote charges at him. Sancho, who trots to the left of Quixote, realizes that the knight is a barber riding a donkey who has placed a shiny basin on his head to protect himself from the rain.