Édouard Riou

Édouard Riou (2 December 1833 Saint-Servan, Ille-et-Vilaine – 27 January 1900 Paris) was a French painter and illustrator of books by Jules Verne.

Riou was a pupil of Charles-François Daubigny and Gustave Doré, graduated in 1859. "Before and after his association with Hetzel, Riou specialized for many years in landscape painting and commemorative pieces (the opening of the Suez Canal, the marriage of the Russian tsar’s daughter, etc.)." [Arthur B. Evans: "The Illustrators of Jules Verne’s Voyages Extraordinaires". In SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES, XXV:2 (July 1998), p. 250.] In 1868 Verne wrote: "I have received the drawings from Riou. I have several suggestions to make which I’ll mention to him by return mail. I think he needs to make the people much smaller and the rooms much larger. And he needs to add much more detail... By the way, it was an excellent idea to use Colonel Charras as the model for Captain Nemo. I should’ve thought of that." [Charles-Noël Martin: "La Vie et l’oeuvre de Jules Verne" (Paris: Michel de l’Ormeraie, 1978), p. 176.]

Edmondo Marcucci wrote: “Riou’s drawings are rich with light, and the traits of his characters have a vigorous expression. Riou succeeds in adapting himself artistically to the realistic reproduction of the many fantastic locales of the Vernian fictional geography: the mists and the glacial icepacks, the shadows inside the Earth’s crust, the deserted and expansive beaches, and the many bodies of water and their movement... Everything is both ordered and evocative in Riou’s work—his style might be called ‘romantic realism’...” [Edmondo Marcucci: "Les Illustrations des Voyages Extraordinaires de Jules Verne" (Bordeaux: Ed. Société Jules Verne, 1956), pp. 18–19.]

Ron Miller has said: “I believe his work stylistically spans the transition between the illustrators of the early 19th century and those of the latter half—when the profession of professional illustrators became established. Some of the qualities that Riou carried over were the often cartoon-like depiction of characters and the use of numerous ‘spot’ illustrations.” [cited in Arthur B. Evans: "The Illustrators of Jules Verne’s Voyages Extraordinaires". In SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES, XXV:2 (July 1998), p. 250.]

Verne's novels

# Cinq Semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon, 1863) – 51 illustrations by Riou (40) and Henri de Montaut (5), unsigned (6), engraving by Coste, Delaville, Dumont, Fournier, Hildibrand, Pannemaker, Prunaire (1865)
# Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras (The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, 1864–5) – 259 illustrations by Riou (190) and Henri de Montaut (69), engraving by Barbant, Cazat, Delaville, Dumont, Hildibrand, Joliet, Linton, Pannemaker, Pierdon, Pisan, Prunaire (1866)
# Voyage au centre de la terre (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1864) – 56 illustrations, engraving by Pannemaker, Gauchard, Maurand (1867)
# Les enfants du capitaine Grant (The Children of Capt. Grant, 1865–7) – 175 illustrations, engraving by Delaville, Gauchard, Maurand, Pannemaker, Prunaire (1868)
# Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1869–70) – 111 illustrations by Riou (24, the first eleven chapters) and Alphonse de Neuville (86), engraving by Hildibrand (1871)
# Le Chancellor (The Survivors of the Chancellor, 1874–5) – 45 illustrations by Riou (45) and Jules Férat (13), engraving by Barbant, Crosbie, Dumont, Hildibrand, Louis, Meaulle, Pannemaker (1875)

Riou illustrated Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (1880) and Waverley, Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris, and Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo (1887). He became a member of the Legion of Honour.

Footnotes

References

* Arthur B. Evans: "The Illustrators of Jules Verne’s Voyages Extraordinaires". In SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES, XXV:2 (July 1998): 241-70.
* Charles-Noël Martin: "La Vie et l’oeuvre de Jules Verne" (Paris: Michel de l’Ormeraie, 1978).
* André Bottin: "Bibliographie des éditions illustrées des Voyages Extraordinaires de Jules Verne" (Contes: Chez l’auteur, 1978).
* Edmondo Marcucci: "Les Illustrations des Voyages Extraordinaires de Jules Verne" (Bordeaux: Ed. Société Jules Verne, 1956).

See also

* Jules Verne (1828–1905)
* Jules Férat (1819–1889)
* Léon Benett (1839–1917)
* Georges Roux (1850–1929)
* Henri de Montaut (1840–1905)
* Émile-Antoine Bayard (1837–1891)
* Alphonse de Neuville (1835–1885)
* Alfred Quesnay de Beaurépaire (* 1830)
* Paul-Dominique Philippoteaux († 1903)
* Henri Mayer (1844–1899)
* Georges Tiret-Bognet (1855–1930)

External links

* [http://JV.Gilead.org.il Zvi Har’El’s Jules Verne Collection]