Thomas Stothard's "Robinson Crusoe upon the raft" for Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe"

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Robinson Crusoe upon the raft

Artist: Thomas Stothard

Engraver: C. Heath

1782, 1790

Copper-engraving

11 cm high by 8.3 cm wide

Source: Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, facing page 40.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Stothard initially provided fifteen plates in Harrison's 1782 edition, then a more comprehensive set for John Stockdale's 1790 edition. Stothard added five plates to the second group of illustrations for this edition.

Passage Illustrated: Salvaging anything usable from the shipwreck

I had three encouragements — 1st, a smooth, calm sea; 2ndly, the tide rising, and setting in to the shore; 3rdly, what little wind there was blew me towards the land. And thus, having found two or three broken oars belonging to the boat — and, besides the tools which were in the chest, I found two saws, an axe, and a hammer; with this cargo I put to sea. For a mile or thereabouts my raft went very well, only that I found it drive a little distant from the place where I had landed before; by which I perceived that there was some indraft of the water, and consequently I hoped to find some creek or river there, which I might make use of as a port to get to land with my cargo.

As I imagined, so it was. There appeared before me a little opening of the land, and I found a strong current of the tide set into it; so I guided my raft as well as I could, to keep in the middle of the stream. But here I had like to have suffered a second shipwreck, which, if I had, I think verily would have broken my heart; for, knowing nothing of the coast, my raft ran aground at one end of it upon a shoal, and not being aground at the other end, it wanted but a little that all my cargo had slipped off towards the end that was afloat, and to fallen into the water. I did my utmost, by setting my back against the chests, to keep them in their places, but could not thrust off the raft with all my strength; neither durst I stir from the posture I was in; but holding up the chests with all my might, I stood in that manner near half-an-hour, in which time the rising of the water brought me a little more upon a level; and a little after, the water still-rising, my raft floated again, and I thrust her off with the oar I had into the channel, and then driving up higher, I at length found myself in the mouth of a little river, with land on both sides, and a strong current of tide running up. I looked on both sides for a proper place to get to shore, for I was not willing to be driven too high up the river: hoping in time to see some ships at sea, and therefore resolved to place myself as near the coast as I could. [pp. 40-41]

Commentary

Robert L. Patten contends that in these eighteenth-century copperplates Stothard has “responded to developments in landscape gardening and the picturesque. Crusoe's island was a kind of paradise, and Crusoe's labors looked easy and successful. In the picture of Crusoe on his raft, Stothard designed a ‘lovely and inviting sylvan scene’ because he had dreamed it. The hut appears well ordered, comfortable, civilized; Stothard sentimentalized the mariner's ordeal and sheared away the irony, solitude, and spiritual struggle embedded in Defoe's narrative” (336). If Stothard's copperplates possess the contemplative stillness and elegance of an eighteenth-century drawing-room, Cruikshank's have the animation and vigour of Victorian melodrama, with expressive poses replacing Stothard's statuesque figures.

Related Scenes from Cruikshank (1790), the 1818 Children's Book, and Gilbert (1860s)

Left: Cruikshank's less atmospheric realisation of the same episode, Crusoe salvaging cargo from the shipwreck (1831: wood-engraving, Chapter III, "Wrecked on a Desert Island"). Centre: Colourful realisation of the same scene, but somewhat lacking in realistic perspective: Robinson Crusoe on the Raft (1818). Right: John Gilbert's vivacious young Crusoe rescues the ship's dog and one cat, Robinson Crusoe on his Raft (1860s). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Related Material

Illustrations of Robinson Crusoe

Bibliography

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Written by Himself. Illustrated by Thomas Stothard; engraving by C. Heath. London: Bliss, Sands, and Foster, 1820.

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner. (1831). Major's Edition. London: Chatto & Windus, 1890.

Patten, Robert L. "Phase 2: "'The Finest Things, Next to Rembrandt's,' 1720–1835." Chapter 20, "Thumbnail Designs." George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, vol. 1: 1792-1835. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers U. P., 1992; London: The Lutterworth Press, 1992. Pp. 325-339.

Last modiufied 4 February 2018