Neuville & Riou: Flooded Landscape with Figures, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Executed in the meticulous cross-hatching style of Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou, the celebrated illustrators of Jules Verne's original Hetzel editions, this engraving depicts three figures armed with rifles wading through a vast flooded plain, gazing skyward at large seabirds wheeling overhead. A spectral building looms in the misty distance amid submerged trees. The fine tonal gradations and atmospheric perspective are hallmarks of the Hetzel school's mastery of Victorian wood engraving.