A Study for Gulliver's Travels

 

In 1947, a new edition of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels appeared. It was published in New York by Crown Publishers and includes an introduction by Jacques Barzun. It is illustrated with twenty-three "original prints" and one hundred and sixty drawings by Quintanilla. There is no indication that the book was issued in a limited edition.

To make the prints, Quintanilla derived his own process which allowed him to draw his images directly onto coated, translucent cellophane sheets. This provided a drawing surface much closer to paper than drawing on a ground-covered plate in the manner traditionally used in etching. Then by passing light through the cellophane onto a zinc plate covered with a photosensitive emulsion, he could transfer the image to the plate. Finally, by means of an application of acid, the image was etched onto the plate from which the impressions would be printed. Like photographic negatives, the blacks and whites on the cellophanes are reversed, but when printed regain their original orientation.

According to the editors of Gulliver's Travels, this printmaking process is "in the tradition of Blake" and qualifies the prints as "authentic originals" -- a designation not accepted by this catalogue raisonné. This same process was also used to create the illustrations for Cervantes' Three Exemplary Novels and Poe's "The Raven" and "The Bells," as well as for Gulliver's Travels. (For a more complete explanation of why these illustrations are not included in the catalogue raisonné proper, click here.)