Gerard de Nerval was a French poet who anticipated the Symbolist movement in his fascination with dreams as a reflection of the supernatural. Destitute and distraught over a thwarted love, he hung himself from a lantern post in 1855. Gustave Doré’s lithograph provides a fitting pictorial memorial to the poet's hallucinatory vision and tragic end. Never pulled in an edition, the lithograph is very rare; it marks the culmination of Doré’s work in the medium. After 1855, the young artist began to rely on professional engravers while he turned increasingly to painting.