The Hare and the Frogs

The Hare and the Frogs and Doré's Fables

The Hare and the Frogs shows Gustave Doré working at the scale of fable rather than epic. There is no cathedral of darkness, no army of angels, no London crowd and no biblical catastrophe. Instead, Doré gives the reader a nervous hare, startled frogs, reeds, water and the exact moment when fear changes direction.

The image belongs to Doré's illustrations for Jean de La Fontaine's Fables. The Bibliothèque nationale de France identifies Le lièvre et les grenouilles as Book II, fable XIV, with La Fontaine as author, Doré as designer, Adolphe François Pannemaker and Albert Doms as wood engravers, and Louis Hachette's Paris edition of 1867 as the publication context.^[1]

That source context makes the page worth preserving. The Hare and the Frogs is not one of Doré's largest subjects, but it shows his range. He could turn a short moral fable into a vivid printed scene, using a few animals and a pond to make the story instantly readable.

At a Glance

• TitleThe Hare and the Frogs
• French titleLe lièvre et les grenouilles, Book II, fable XIV ^[1]
• SeriesJean de La Fontaine's Fables
• MediumWood engraving, with BnF and Met process records ^[1][2]
• Page roleLa Fontaine / Fables support page, linked to Illustrations and Engravings

Contents

1. The La Fontaine Series
2. What Doré Shows
3. Wood Engraving and Small-Scale Drama
4. Place in Doré's Work
5. Why the Image Still Matters

The La Fontaine Series

La Fontaine gave Doré a different challenge from Dante, Milton or the Bible. Fables are short. They usually depend on a simple narrative turn and a pointed moral observation. The illustrator has less room for architectural grandeur or cosmic scale. The image has to clarify the action quickly.

The Hare and the Frogs is a strong example of that compression. La Fontaine's fable describes a hare consumed by fear. When the hare approaches a pond, the frogs leap away in alarm. The hare realizes that even a fearful creature can frighten others, and the fable turns on the idea that every coward can find someone more timid.

Doré turns that thought into a single scene. The hare stands above the frogs, suddenly larger than the creatures fleeing into the water. The pond, reeds and movement of the frogs explain the action without needing a long retelling. The moral is carried by scale and reaction.

What Doré Shows

The composition is built around contrast. The hare is upright and prominent, while the frogs are scattered and in motion. The viewer understands the reversal almost immediately. The animal known for fear has become the cause of fear.

The setting does important work. The reeds frame the pond and give the scene vertical movement. The water gives the frogs somewhere to disappear. The hare's larger form stands against the lighter space behind it, making the figure easy to read even in a small printed image.

Doré's humor is restrained. The image has comic energy, especially in the frogs' sudden escape, but it is not a cartoon detached from the fable. The comedy belongs to the moral situation. The hare is still timid, yet for one moment it becomes powerful by accident.

Wood Engraving and Small-Scale Drama

The BnF and Met records both identify the work through wood engraving. That matters because fable illustration depends on clarity at book scale. Doré's design had to survive reproduction as line and tone, with figures, reeds and water remaining readable on the printed page.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art records a wood-engraving proof from the La Fontaine series, after Doré and engraved by Jean Delduc, dated 1868. The BnF record gives the 1867 Hachette context and names Pannemaker and Doms as engravers for its recorded impression. Together, the sources show that the image belongs to a print-production world rather than a single unique drawing.^[1][2]

That production context links the page directly to Engravings. The Hare and the Frogs is an illustration, but its public form is an engraved image made for circulation in a book.

Place in Doré's Work

The Hare and the Frogs works best as a concise support page. It does not need the same scale as The Creation of Light, The Deluge, The Vision of Death or The Enigma. Its value lies in showing another register of Doré's art: economical storytelling, comic movement and moral reversal.

The nearest active companions are Little Red Riding Hood and Bluebeard, because all three pages deal with short narrative forms: fable and fairy tale. Dante and Milton form a heavier literary corridor, while La Fontaine provides a lighter but still sourceable branch.

In a series-led Doré structure, this page belongs under La Fontaine / Fables. It sits naturally near Perrault / Fairy Tales rather than in the Bible core or paintings group.

Why the Image Still Matters

The Hare and the Frogs matters because it shows Doré's discipline. The subject is small, but the image is sharply organized. Doré gives the fable a readable stage: the hare, the frogs, the pond, the reeds and the instant of alarm.

That economy is important to understanding him. Doré was famous for vast illustrated books, but his talent was not only scale. He could also make a brief fable visually memorable. The scene shows how quickly he could turn a moral idea into a picture.

For Doré's public route, the page earns its place as a supporting La Fontaine entry. It protects a canonical artwork page, connects the literary and engraving hubs, and gives readers a clear example of Doré working with fable rather than scripture, epic poetry or urban spectacle.

Related Pages

Use these pages to follow Doré through fable, fairy tale, literary illustration and printed-book production.

FAQ

References

1. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Le lièvre et les grenouilles, accessed 27 July 2026.
2. Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Hare and the Frogs, from Jean de La Fontaine's Fables, accessed 27 July 2026.