Gustave Dore woodblocks find home at Warren's Crary Art Gallery

This is a story that spans 150 years, features appearances by characters as disparate as a world renowned artist and a Wild West showman, and has a very happy ending for one local art gallery.

The central figure in the tale is Gustave Dor., a 19th century French printmaker, painter, illustrator and sculptor. While he was celebrated for his paintings during his lifetime, it was his woodcuts and engravings that truly exhibited his skill and artistic vision. During his prolific career he illustrated celebrated editions of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"; John Milton's "Paradise Lost"; "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes; Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "The Idylls of the King"; and Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy," among many others.

In 1866, Dor. found tremendous success with his illustrations -- nearly 240 -- for a new English Bible. Those illustrations and the books in which they appeared are collectible today, but what about the hand-carved woodblocks that created them?

"They are such rare things, there is not really a market for them in the way there would be for paintings or prints," said Thomas Paquette, an artist and a board member of the Crary Art Gallery in Warren. But it was two of those woodblocks that found their way into Paquette's orbit about five years ago in a most circuitous way.

The woodblocks had been in the possession of Warren resident Barry Seastead's family for more than a century; his great-grandfather had acquired them around 1906, while traveling in Europe as a sign painter with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.

"At first there was some confusion when he said he had two woodblocks by Dor.," Paquette recalled. "I was sure he meant woodblock prints, and guessed what he actually had was probably nothing more than a framed reproduction from a book or something, because, frankly, that made a lot more sense than an actual print by Dor.. I was shocked to see that he had the actual blocks of finely engraved wood from which the famous prints were made.

"They are exquisite," he added.

The 9½-by-7¾-inch blocks boast the initials of both Dor., who created the intricately detailed original drawings, and of Helidore-Joseph Pisan, Dor.'s official block cutter. They depict two of the more dramatic Old Testament stories: "The Murder of Abel" and "The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden." In fact, just by chance Paquette and his wife were in Paris after being contacted by Seastead and they came upon an exhibit of Dor.'s works at the famed Musee D'Orsay.

"It was kind of a shock," Paquette says, "at the entrance to the display they had two giant illustrations, blown up to probably 8 feet tall, and one of them was of Cain slaying Abel" -- an enlarged reproduction of a print created from the Seastead woodblock.

Several American museums were interested in acquiring the pieces by donation, but if Seastead was going to donate them he decided he wanted to give them to his hometown gallery, where people who might otherwise rarely have a chance to see such treasures will have access to them always.

The blocks were introduced to the public at a special reception last month; they are now on permanent display in a case made just for them by a local master carpenter. The Crary now has something very special in common with Harvard University, where six Dor. woodblocks are included in the Fogg Museum's collection.

Currently the Crary is featuring an exhibit of paintings by Aaron Pickens called "Toy Tableau;" later this spring and summer you can see works by Maryland artist Marcel Richter, paintings of the Cleveland Flats by Hope Zaccagni, watercolors by renowned New York artist Barbara Fox, and the exhibit "Wild Kingdom" by Paquette's wife Ellen Paquette. Throughout them all, the Dor. display will remain, a constant presence and ongoing tribute to the artist who created the works, and to the family that put hometown pride and affection before any potential personal profit.

SEE IT The Crary Art Gallery, 511 Market St. in Warren, is open Thursdays and Saturdays, noon to 6 p.m.; Fridays, noon to 8 p.m.; and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. (the Gallery will be closed this Sunday for Easter). Admission is free. For more details, or to arrange group or private tours, call (814) 723-4523 or visit www.crarygallery.org.