Illustrating the Grotesque

This exhibition publication accompanied a remarkable coming together of the diverse skills of Heath Robinson and Francisco Goya. Following the success of The Adventures of Uncle Lubin the publisher embarked on a massively adventurous two volume project - The Works of Rabelais. The cost bankrupted the publisher but allowed Heath Robinson to immersed himself in Goya's work in order to develop a particular style required for the stories quite different from the children's books Robinson had been illustrating. The drawings set out to transport the reader to a bleak landscape largely peopled by grotesque peasants and priests whose lives are dominated by fear and superstition and who find relief only in drunkenness and debauchery.