The Danube from the Black Forest to the Black Sea

In 1892, Harper’s Magazine commissioned Millet to write and illustrate a lengthy series of magazine articles.  They would appeal to the wealthy public who at this time were looking for new and exciting places to travel. The articles would form the backbone of a book published the year after the magazine serial also entitled: From The Black Forest to the Black Sea.

This assignment, in typical Millet style was conducted in canoes along with his close friend Alfred Parsons and Poultney Bigelow.  The three men can be seen in the flyleaf photograph, Millet standing overlooking Parsons and Bigelow as they sketch the the Danube.  In fact most of the illustrations in the book were done by Millet with contributions from the other two men.

Looking at the book or the magazines on-line is most entertaining and contains a number of striking images.  One drawing completed by Millet, shows a gypsy camp at Galatz, now present day Galati, Romania.  This is the last major city before the Danube empties into the the Black Sea.

The following link is a short cut to the illustrations in the book: 

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/62150/pg62150-images.html#ILLUSTRATIONS

The following engraving, artist unknown, shows what the town would have looked like in the late 1800’s.

The public domain book and illustrations have been scanned and is still quite good reading:

https://archive.org/details/cu31924028085177/page/n21/mode/2up