The Work
Doré's Jonah Cast into the Sea (from La Sainte Bible, 1866) captures the terrifying moment when the sailors throw the reluctant prophet overboard into a churning sea, the great fish already visible in the dark waves below. The helpless prophet descends toward the creature's open mouth in one of Doré's most theatrically composed plates.
Biblical Source
Jonah 1:15 - "Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm" - and Jonah 1:17 - "Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights" - provide the narrative. The fish-swallowing is Jesus's own type for his resurrection (Matthew 12:40: "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth").
Artist and Iconography
Doré's plate places the already-visible fish beneath the descending prophet, creating a compositional anticipation of what the narrative requires: the fish is already there, the divinely provided rescue already in position before the prophet enters the sea. The theatrical composition - the descending figure, the open-mouthed fish, the churning waves - makes this one of the most immediately recognizable images in the Doré Bible.