Edward Sorel - Guillotine

The pen & ink detail in this illustration is just wonderful. Sorel is able to both maintain his slap-dash, juicy line work, as well as a real solidity of form. This piece reminds me of one of those old Rube Goldberg contraption cartoons, though I don't recall the ramifications of any of Goldberg's cartoons as being so dire. The person caricatured is Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin, who is apparently taking his invention out for a spin. The drawing appeared in Word People, a book written by Nancy Caldwell Sorel in 1970. It was later reprinted in a monograph of Sorel's work, Superpen.