Imprisoned family escaping

Frederick Shields

1863

Wood engraving by Joseph Swain

4½ x 3¼ inches

Illustration for Daniel Defoe’s History of the Plague of London, 1665, facing p.48.

A typically dynamic composition in which the family escape by walking over the knocked down door, which has a body lying under it. Shields includes quaint details such as the key and broken hinge, rather in the manner of Frederick Sandys, but also recalling the particularization of German illustrations by Alfred Rethel and Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld.

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  • Daniel DeFoe (homepage)

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