George Eliot Illustrations Gallery
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The George Eliot Archive holds 355 illustrations of Eliot's novels, stories, and poems, the primary sources for understanding how early readers pictured her characters and how publishers presented her writing to the reading public.
Most were made over a century ago for premium editions and are hard to find in their original printed form. Drawn from Beverley Park Rilett's personal collection of antique books and from borrowed volumes, the gallery draws chiefly on the Thomas Y. Crowell George Eliot's Works (1894), L. G. Seguin's A Souvenir of George Eliot (1888), the George Eliot Portfolio (1888), and the Dana Estes Complete Poems (1886).
Its centerpiece is Frederic Leighton's Romola series, commissioned by George Smith in 1862–63 after he lured Eliot away from John Blackwood with a large advance. Romola is the only Eliot novel illustrated during its first publication. Scanned from Smith's 1880 two-volume gift edition, these are the first high-resolution images of the complete series published online.
Our editorial work
We began collecting and publishing high resolution scans of public domain illustrations in 2018, but compilation is only part of what this Archive collection offers. Every illustration carries two kinds of description written for two different purposes:
- Alt-text makes the gallery usable by readers who cannot see the image: "Grayscale illustration of a boy and girl walking together in a forest."
- Contextual descriptions do what alt-text cannot, placing the illustration within Eliot's text: "Philip and Maggie walking together in the Red Deeps."
Alt-text was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by graduate student assistants Kaylen Michaelis, Alexis Stoffers, and other editorial assistants in 2022-23.
The contextual descriptions were researched and written in Spring and Fall 2025, with final editing in Spring 2026 by student interns working with Dr. Rilett. Together they turn a set of scanned images into a scholarly resource that can be searched, taught, and cited.
The collection and its descriptions are published under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, so researchers may download, share, and build on this work with attribution.
Corrections, missing illustrations, and artist attributions are welcome, with special thanks to collector Michael Steele for his help providing many scans and identifying several creators. Please contact project director Beverley Park Rilett.
Hetty Sorrel and Captain Donnithorne in Mrs Poyser's dairy
'Yet quiet, lowly as a meek white dove, / That with its presence teaches gentleness.'
'The house was held / As if a storm were listening with delight / And hushed its thunder.'
'Our meadow-path had memorable spots: / One where it bridged a tiny rivulet.'
'Across the homestead to the rookery elms, / Whose tall old trunks had each a grassy mound'
Original Illustrated Initial from 'Brother Jacob' in the Cornhill Magazine (1864)
'A large man in a smock-frock, with a pitchfork in his hand, rushed up to Mr. Freely and hugged him, crying out, "Zavy, Zavy, b'other Zavy!"'
'He cried again - and I held my hand, and my heart said, "Die!" - and he sank.'
'Grandcourt saw it and saw that it was attracting Deronda’s notice.'
'How I pity all the other girls at the archery meeting!'
If, because of anything her brother said to him, he went away
'A man with a sabre in his hand was taking the command'
'And you will put the crown to the mortification of my life, Harold?'
'Father, I have not been good to you; But I will be, I will be,' said Esther, laying her head on his knee.
'She stood, divested of all personal considerations, whether of vanity or shyness.'
'Felix went straight to this platform and stepped upon it, crying "Halt!"'
'Come now, you'll say I used to be a Tory.'
'You really have no idea what an impression it conveys when you say you are a radical.'
'There were trim cheerful villages.'
'Mrs. Holt sat on a stool, in singular relief against the pedestal of the Apollo.'
'Let me go, you scoundrel,' said Harold, fiercely, 'or I'll be the death of you.'
'She heard herself called "Mother!" and felt a light kiss on each cheek.'
The Reverend Lyon receives a Christian of sorts
Rufus Lyon encounters Annette Ledru in distress
'Would sing as finely to this suffering child, / As at the court where princes on him smiled.'
'I've made two wills, and I'm going to burn one. Now you do as I tell you.'
Shepperton Church As It Was
'Lizzie advanced without hesitation, and put out one hand, while she fingered her coral necklace with the other.'
'She lingered at the door before she gathered courage to knock.'
'He stroked the satin head, and said in his gentlest voice, "How do you do, Lizzie? will you give me a kiss?"'
'He pushed her to the entrance... and thrust her out.'
Janet at Mrs. Pettifer's Door
'She sinks down on her knees, takes the dear hand in her arms, and kisses the cold forehead.'
Just on the slope by a clump of laurels, where they can see the sunbeams sparkling among the water-lilies
'The soul that was born anew to music was born anew to love'
'My dear - dear - husband - you have been - very - good to me.'
'While this conversation was going forward, Dickey had been furtively stroking and kissing the soft white hand.'
'Could this be his little sister come back to him in a dream?'
'She retreated to her father's chair again, and held him round the neck.'
'He felt his heart begin to beat violently, and for a few moments he was unable to stretch out his hand and grasp the restored treasure.'
'Suppose, now, you get the money yourself, and save me the trouble, eh?'
'The minister asked him if he knew where he had left that knife.'
'When any master holds/ 'Twixt chin and hand a violin of mine, / He will be glad that Stradivari lived.'
'The evening of our life, love, shall go and / Come no more.'
'He spread his tents upon the grassy plain / Which, eastward widening like the open main, / Showed the first whiteness 'neath the morning star.'
'He sought the screen / Of thorny thickets, and there fell unseen'
'Then Jubal poured his triumph in a song.'
'Why did she stand before me with the candle in her hand, with her cruel contemptuous eyes fixed on me, and the glittering serpent, like a familiar demon, on her breast?'
'It is coming, Maggie!' Tom said, in a deep hoarse voice, loosing the oars, and clasping her.
[Maggie was] ‘looking darkly radiant from under her beaver-bonnet’
'His doublet loose, his right arm backward flung, /His left caressing close the long-necked lute.'
'Circling, she lightly bends and lifts on high / The multitudinous-sounding tambourine.'
'A steadfast form that held him with its thought'
'But he who wears a solitary chain heading the file, has turned to face Fedalma'
