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| Part 2: Magwitch in London with Pip. |
Size: 39 cm x 27 cm
A 23-year-old Pip falls down on a sofa, after the secret identity of his benefactor had been revealed to him: It is the convict Provis, or Magwitch, who Pip helped as a little boy in the marshes. Up until that moment, he thought Miss Havisham to be his secret benefactor, and falsely drew the conclusion that she intended him to marry Estella. But the advent of Magwitch turned his world upside down!
As Magwitch is holding Pip's hands, and smiling at "his gentleman", images of Pip's past flash through his head, here envisioned as grey copies of other illustrations I've made, floating around the centrepiece. The upper ones show scenes involving Magwitch, while the lower ones show his encounters with Estella and Miss Havisham. Can you discern which one belongs to which chapter?
The ex-convict Magwitch sneaked into Britain, despite having been exiled to Australia. Coming back means death! Instead of the aristocrat Miss Havisham, Pip had drawn unknowingly on the means of a lowly convict, who is exiled for a crime, Pip doesn't even want to imagine. And in the third volume, he has to protect him, with a fatal outcome...
Looking at Stefano's work thus far I am amazed at the quality and variety of his illustrations for Great Expectations. Having spent quite some time informally studying Dickens' illustrators both of his time and beyond, It is with confidence that I can commend him for such excellence.
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