Gustave Doré
Photograph by Nadar, 1867
Born
Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré

(1832-01-06)6 January 1832
Strasbourg, France
Died23 January 1883(1883-01-23) (aged 51)
Paris, France
Known forPainting, etching, illustrations
MovementRomanticism, symbolism

Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré (UK: /ˈdɔːreɪ/ DOR-ay, US: /dɔːˈreɪ/ dor-AY, French: [ɡystav dɔʁe]; 6 January 1832 – 23 January 1883) was a French printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravings illustrating classic literature, especially those for the Vulgate Bible and Dante's Divine Comedy. These achieved great international success, and he became renowned for printmaking, although his role was normally as the designer only; at the height of his career some 40 block-cutters were employed to cut his drawings onto the wooden printing blocks, usually also signing the image.[1]

He created over 10,000 illustrations, the most important of which were copied using an electrotype process using cylinder presses, allowing very large print runs to be published simultaneously in many countries.[2]

Biography

Doré by Carolus-Duran (1877)

Doré was born in Strasbourg on 6 January 1832. By age 5 he was a prodigy artist, creating drawings that were mature beyond his years. Seven years later, he began carving in stone. At the age of 15, Doré began his career working as a caricaturist for the French paper Le journal pour rire.[3] The illustrations of J. J. Grandville have been noted as an influence on his work.[4] Wood-engraving was his primary method at this time.[5] In the late 1840s and early 1850s, he made several text comics, like Les Travaux d'Hercule (1847), Trois artistes incompris et mécontents (1851), Les Dés-agréments d'un voyage d'agrément (1851) and L'Histoire de la Sainte Russie (1854). Doré subsequently went on to win commissions to depict scenes from books by Cervantes, Rabelais, Balzac, Milton, and Dante. He also illustrated "Gargantua et Pantagruel" in 1854.

In 1853 Doré was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron.[6] This commission was followed by additional work for British publishers, including a new illustrated Bible. In 1856 he produced 12 folio-size illustrations of The Legend of The Wandering Jew, which propagated longstanding antisemitic views of the time,[7] for a short poem which Pierre-Jean de Béranger had derived from a novel of Eugène Sue of 1845.[8][9][10]

d'Artagnan on Doré's monument to Alexandre Dumas, père in Paris

In the 1860s he illustrated a French edition of Cervantes's Don Quixote, and his depictions of the knight and his squire, Sancho Panza, became so famous that they influenced subsequent readers, artists, and stage and film directors' ideas of the physical "look" of the two characters.[11] Doré also illustrated an oversized edition of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", an endeavor that earned him 30,000 francs from publisher Harper & Brothers in 1883.[12]

The government of France made him a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1861.[13]

Doré's illustrations for the Bible (1866) were a great success, and in 1867 Doré had a major exhibition of his work in London. This exhibition led to the foundation of the Doré Gallery in Bond Street, London.[14] In 1869, Blanchard Jerrold, the son of Douglas William Jerrold, suggested that they work together to produce a comprehensive portrait of London. Jerrold had obtained the idea from The Microcosm of London produced by Rudolph Ackermann, William Pyne, and Thomas Rowlandson (published in three volumes from 1808 to 1810).[15] Doré signed a five-year contract with the publishers Grant & Co that involved his staying in London for three months a year, and he received the vast sum of £10,000 a year for the project. Doré was celebrated for his paintings in his day, but his woodcuts and engravings, like those he did for Jerrold, are where he excelled as an artist with an individual vision.

The completed book London: A Pilgrimage, with 180 wood engravings, was published in 1872. It enjoyed commercial and popular success, but the work was disliked by some contemporary British critics, as it appeared to focus on the poverty that existed in parts of London. Doré was accused by The Art Journal of "inventing rather than copying".[16] The Westminster Review claimed that "Doré gives us sketches in which the commonest, the vulgarest external features are set down".[17] But they impressed Vincent van Gogh, who painted a version of the Prisoners' Round in 1890, the year of his death. The book was a financial success, however, and Doré received commissions from other British publishers.

Doré's later work included illustrations for new editions of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Milton's Paradise Lost, Tennyson's Idylls of the King, The Works of Thomas Hood, and The Divine Comedy. Doré's work also appeared in the weekly newspaper The Illustrated London News.

Death

Doré never married and, following the death of his father in 1849, he continued to live with his mother, illustrating books until his death of a heart attack in Paris on January 23, 1883, following a short illness.[18] At the time of his death Doré was working on illustrations for an edition of Shakespeare's plays.[19]

Works

Doré was a prolific artist; thus the following list of works is not complete and it does not include his paintings, sculptures, and many of his journal illustrations:

DateAuthorWorkVolumes / FormatIllustrationsPublisherRef
1854Gustave DoréHistoire pittoresque dramatique et caricaturale de la Sainte Russie, d'après les chroniqueurs et historiens Nestor Nikan Sylvestre Karamsin Ségur etc.1 vol.500Paris: de Bry[20][21]
1854RabelaisOeuvres contenant la vie de Gargantua et celle de Pantagruel ...1 vol. 4to.Frontis. & 15J.Bry Ainé, Paris[22]
1855Honoré de BalzacLes Contes Drôlatiques425Société Générale de la Libraire, and in Le Journal pour Tous[23]
1855Jules GérardLa Chasse au Lion1 vol. 12mo.11Librairie Nouvelle[24]
1856Fierabras d'Alexandrie, Légende Nationale traduite par Mary Lafon1 vol in 8vo123Librairie Nouvelle[25]
1856Victor PercivalMémoires d'un Jeune Cadet, par Victor Percival48[25]
1856La Légende du Juif Errant1 vol. grand in folio12 Image:Wandering jew title page.jpgMichel Lévy[25]
1857[26]Dante AlighieriL'Enfer75[27][28]
1857 autumnEd. de La BédollièreNouveau Paris, Histoire de ses 20 Arrondissements1 vol in 4to150Barba[29]
1857 autumnValéry VernierAline, Journal d'un Jeune Hommeone large pageDentu[29]
1860–1862Thomas Mayne ReidL'Habitation du Désert1 vol. in 16mo60Hachette[29]
1860–1862Ann S. StevensLa Fille du Grand Chieftain1 vol.15[29]
1860–1862M. V. VictorFlêche d'Or1 vol.13[29]
1860–1862E. S. EllisL'Ange des Frontières1 vol.10[29]
1860–1862N. W. BuxtedLes Vierges de la Forêt1 vol.10[29]
1860William ShakespeareThe Tempest1 vol. in 4to(London)[29]
1861Les Figures du Temps1 vol. in 12mo(Paris)[29]
1861Plouvier and VincentLes Chansons d'Autrefoisin 12moCoulon and Pineau, Paris[29]
1861Edmond About[30]Le Roi des Montagnes1 vol. in 8vo157Hachette and Co., Paris[29]
1862SaintineLes Mythologies du Rhin1 vol. in 8vo165Hachette and Co., Paris[29]
1862L'Abbé Léon GodardL'Espagne, Mœurs et Paysages2 vols in 8vo4 Image:Moeurs et paysages title page.jpgAlfred Mame et Fils, Tours Image:Moeurs et paysages title page.jpg or Paris[29][29]
1862Malte-Brun[31]Les États Unis et le Mexique1 vol. in 4toBrun, Paris[29]
1862Histoire aussi intéressante qu'invraisemblable de l'intrépide Capitaine Castagnette, neveu de l'Homme à la Tête de Bois1 vol. in 4to43Hachette[29]
1862Charles PerraultLes Contes de Perrault11[32]
1862Aventures du Baron de Münchausen, traduction nouvelle par Théophile Gautier fils1 vol.(Paris, Charles Furne)[29]
1863M. ÉpinéLégende de Croquemitaine1 vol. in 4to177Hachette[29]
1863GastineauLa Chasse au Lion et à la Panthère1 vol. in 8voHachette and Co.[29]
1863Miguel de CervantesDon Quixote de la Mancha translation by Louis Viardot2 vols. folio370Hachette and Co., Paris, and Cassell and Co., London[29]
1863Charles PerraultLes Contes de Perrault or in Spanish Los Cuentos de Perrault100+Hetzels. in Spanish by Ledouse[29]
1865GastineauDe Paris en Afrique1 vol. in 12mo(Paris)[29]
1865A. MasseL'Histoire d'un Minute1 vol., 12mo(Paris)[29]
1866Victor HugoTravailleurs de la MerSampson Low and Co., London[29][33]
1865E. EdgarCressy and Poictiers1 vol. in 8vo50+(London)[29]
1865Thomas MooreL'Épicurien (French translation)in 8vo(Paris)[29]
1865Tom HoodFairy Realmin folio(London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler)[29]
1865QuatrellesLe Chevalier Beautempsgrand in 8vo(Paris)[34]
1865ChateaubriandAtala2 vols, grand folio80Hachette Edition[29]
1866Théophile GautierLe Capitaine Fracasse1 vol. grand in 8vo60Charpentier[29]
1866G. La BédollièreHistoire de la Guerre en Mexiquein 4to(Paris)[29]
1866Dante AlighieriThe Vision of HellLondon, Cassell, Petter, and Galpin[29]
1867Dante AlighieriIl Purgatorio ed il ParadisoHachette and Co.[29]
1866[35]X. B. SaintineLe Chemin des Écoliers1 vol. in 8vo450 Image:Le chemin des ecoliers title page.jpg (not all by Doré)Hachette and Co.[29]
1866La Grande Bible de Tours, according to the Vulgate, new translation2 vols. grand in folio241Mame, Tours; Cassell and Co., England[29]
1866John MiltonParadise Lost50 PlatesCassell and Co.[29]
1867La BédollièreLa France et la Russie(Paris)[29]
1867Les Fables de Lafontaine2 vols. in folio8 large and 250 small platesHachette and Co.[29]
1867Les Pays-bas et la Belgiquein 8vo(Paris)[29]
1870Thomas Hood(Poems)2 vols. in folio9 PlatesWard and Lock, London[29]
1873RabelaisNew edition of Rabelais2 vols. in folioParis : Garnier; London: Chatto and Windus[29]
1876Louis ÉnaultLondon1 vol. in 4to174 wood-engravingsHachette and Co.[29]
1874Baron Ch. DavilliersL'Espagnein 4to309 wood-engravingsHachette and Co.; London: Sampson Low and Co.[29]
1875Samuel Taylor ColeridgeThe Rime of the Ancient Marinerin folio39 engraved plates and 3 vignettesLondon: Doré Gallery[36]
1875MichaudHistoire des Croisades2 vol. medium folio100 grand compositionsParis: Hachette and Co.[29]
Alfred TennysonIdylls of the King[29]
1877AriostoOrlando Furioso36 drawingsHachette and Co. (London: Ward and Lock)[29]
1884Edgar Allan PoeThe Raven26 steel engravingsLondon: Sampson Low and Co., New York: Harper and Co.[37]
1890Gustave DoréThe Doré Bible GalleryIllustrated by Gustave DoréPhiladelphia[18]

Reception and legacy

Doré's work received mixed reviews from contemporary art critics, but he was widely acclaimed by the general public. He was adored by many writers and poets, who felt he "brought their wildest dreams and fantasies to life".[38] Théophile Gautier for example stated "Nobody better than this artist can give a mysterious and deep vitality to chimeras, dreams, nightmares, intangible shapes bathed in light and shade, weirdly caricatured silhouettes and all the monsters of fantasy."[38] H.P. Lovecraft drew inspiration from Doré's Rime of the Ancient Mariner illustrations in his formative years.

References

  1. ↑ Gustave Doré at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  2. ↑ Mayor, Hyatt A., Prints and People, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Princeton, 1971, no. 677, ISBN 0691003262
  3. ↑ Lyons, Martin (2011). Books: A Living History. Los Angeles: Getty Publications. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-60606-083-4.
  4. ↑ Rose, Cynthia. 2020. J. J. Grandvill: A Matter of Line and Death. The Comics Journal. (accessed 19 July 2022)
  5. ↑ "Books: A Living History" by Martin Lyons
  6. ↑ Complete Works of Lord Byron illustrated by Ch. Mettais, Bocourt, G. Doré. Published by J. Bry, Paris, 1853. The version at archive.org is in French. The illustrations are not attributed to any one of the three named on the title-page. A handwritten note at page 5 remarks that another edition of 1856 made no mention of Doré among the illustrators, but his designs still appeared in the book.
  7. ↑ Richard S. Levy, Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution, Volume 1, Oxford 2005, p 186
  8. ↑ Zafran, Eric (2007). Rosenblum, Robert; Small, Lisa (eds.). "Fantasy and Faith: The Art of Gustave Dore". Yale University Press.
  9. ↑ "eBay". 22 January 2013. Archived from the original on 22 January 2013.
  10. ↑ "Willis's Price Current: A Catalogue of Superior Second Hand Books Ancient and Modern ... to which are Added a List of New Publications and Current Notes for the Month". Willis and Sotheran. 21 January 2018 – via Google Books.
  11. ↑ "Gustave Doré". lambiek.net.
  12. ↑ Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. p. 252. ISBN 0-8018-5730-9
  13. ↑ Kerr, David (2004). "Doré, (Louis Auguste) Gustave (1832–1883), illustrator". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/67162. Retrieved 2020-01-29. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  14. ↑ McQueen, A. "Gustave Doré," in Nineteenth-Century Art, Highlights from the Tanenbaum Collection, London: 2015, p. 54.
  15. ↑ "Introduction to The Microcosm of London (1808-10) – Romantic London". www.romanticlondon.org.
  16. ↑ Ackyroyd, Peter (2005). London: A Pilgrimage (introduction). Anthem Press. pp. xix.
  17. ↑ Chapman, J (1873). The Westminster Review, Vol 99. p. 341.
  18. 1 2 Doré, Gustave (1890). The Doré Bible Gallery, Illustrated by Gustave Dore. Philadelphia. p. vii. OCLC 636024924. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  19. ↑ Lyons, Martin (2011). Books: A Living History. J. Paul Getty Museum. p. 135.
  20. ↑ indyworld.com Archived 2013-11-26 at the Wayback Machine Gustave Doré's «Holy Russia» by Bill Kartalopoulos. INDY Magazine, Summer 2004
  21. ↑ David Kunzle (1983). "Gustave Dore's History of Holy Russia: Anti-Russian Propaganda from the Crimean War to the Cold War". The Russian Review. Russian Review, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Jul., 1983), pp. 271-299. 42 (3): 271–299. doi:10.2307/129823. JSTOR 129823.
  22. ↑ Eleanor Garvey, A Catalogue of an Exhibition of the Philip Hofer Bequest, 1988.
  23. ↑ Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", page 183. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885.
  24. ↑ Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", page 179. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885.
  25. 1 2 3 Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", page 207. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885.
  26. ↑ Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré", pages 215. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885. Roosevelt states that "In Doré's catalogue 'L'Inferno' figures amongst the works of 1857, and I shall therefore speak of it as belonging to that year's collection, although it was not brought out until 1860."
  27. ↑ The vision of hell. Translated by Rev. Henry Francis Cary, M.A. and illustrated with the seventy-five designs of Gustave Doré. Retrieved 24 December 2022 – via Gutenberg.
  28. ↑ Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré", pages 212-227. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885.
  29. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré", pages 241-243. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885.
  30. ↑ Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré", pages 63. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885. Gustave Doré, Edmond About, and H. Taine were more than contemporaries: they knew each other from college. Roosevelt quotes Doré, "...from that date [1847] until 1850, I occupied myself—sometimes well and sometimes badly—in finishing my studies at the Lycée Charlemagne. It was there that I was so fortunate as to have Edmond About and H. Taine for fellow-collegians."
  31. ↑ Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré", pages 241. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885. Roosevelt attributes authorship to "Malted": "'Les États Unis et la Mexique,' by Malted (sic) (Brun, Paris, 1862), 1 vol. in 4to." She is most likely referring to either Conrad Malte-Brun or his son, Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun, both noted French Geographers.
  32. ↑ Opie, Iona and Peter. The Classic Fairy Tales. 1974. Oxford University Press. p. 134.
  33. ↑ Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré", page 242. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885. Roosevelt implies, though does not specifically state, that a French publisher published this volume in 1865. For one, she places this reference with the other books published in 1865, for another, she uses the word also when mentioning that Sampson Low brought out a copy in London in 1866. Additionally, an English publication would most likely be translated and have a title of Toilers of the Sea. Roosevelt's line reads thus: "Victor Hugo's 'Travailleurs de la Mer', also in 1866, brought out by Sampson Low and Co., in London."
  34. ↑ Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", page 242. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885. Roosevelt states that the preface was written by Alex. Dumas fils
  35. ↑ Although Blanche Roosevelt lists this book as being published in 1866, here Image:Le chemin des ecoliers title page.jpg is the title-page of an edition published five years earlier, with Gustave Doré drawings. Roosevelt is most likely mistaken.
  36. ↑ Leblanc, Henri (1931). Catalogue de l'oeuvre complet de Gustave Doré, Paris: Ch. Bosse, p. 74.
  37. ↑ Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", page 488. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885.
  38. 1 2 Milton, John (2005). "Introduction". Paradise Lost. London: Arcturus. ISBN 9781841932514.

Further reading

  • Delorme, Rene (1879). Gustave Doré. Paris: Librairie d'Art.(80 illustrations, earliest photogravures of Dore paintings)
  • Roosevelt, Blanche (1885). Life and Reminiscence of Gustave Doré. New York: Cassell & Co., Ltd.(141 illustrations)
  • Jerrold, Blanchard (1891). The Life of Gustave Doré. London: W. H. Allen & Co., Ltd.(138 illustrations)
  • Valmy-Baysse, J. (1930). Gustave Doré – L'Art et la Vie. Paris: Editions Marcel Seheur.(314 illustrations)
  • Deze, Louis (1930). Gustave Doré – Bibliographie et catalogue complet de l'oeuvre. Paris: Editions Marcel Seheur.(103 illustrations)
  • LeBlanc, Henri (1931). Catalogue de l'oeuvre complet de Gustave Doré. Paris: Ch. Bosse.(30 illustrations)
  • Farner, Konrad (1963). Gustave Doré der Industrialisierte Romantiker ((2V) ed.). Dresden: Verlag der Kunst.(521 illustrations, reprinting most of the Delorme photogravures)
  • Richardson, Joanna (1980). Gustave Doré. A Biography. London: Cassell.
  • Gustave Doré 1832–1883. Strasbourg: Musée d'Art Moderne. 1983.(exhibition book: 591 illustrations)
  • Renonciat, Annie (1983). La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Doré. Paris: ACR Edition.(343 illustrations)
  • Malan, Dan (1995). Gustave Doré, Adrift on Dreams of Splendor. St. Louis: MCE Publishing Co.(500 illustrations)
  • Fantasy & Faith: the Art of Gustave Doré. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2007. (exhibition book: 250 illustrations, 40 in full-color, sometimes incorrectly listed as, "40 b/w, 120 color illustrations")
  • Kaenel, Philippe (2014). Doré: Master of Imagination. Paris: Flammarion. ISBN 978-2-08-131643-0. (catalog of the exhibition held at Musée d'Orsay and National Gallery of Canada, 335 pages)
  • Bibliographie de la France (Journal General de l'Imprimerie et de la Librairie) (annual listing of the books published in France)
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