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Gustave Doré

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Paul Gustave Doré (January 6, 1832 – January 23, 1883) was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.

Life

Doré was born in Strasbourg and his first illustrated story was published at the age of fifteen. Doré began work as a literary illustrator in Paris. Doré commissions include works by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton and Dante. In 1853 Doré was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron. This commission was followed by additional work for British publishers, including a new illustrated English Bible. In 1863, Doré illustrated a French edition of Cervantes's Don Quixote, and his illustrations of the knight and his squire Sancho Panza have become so famous that they have influenced subsequent readers, artists, and stage and film directors' ideas of the physical "look" of the two characters. Doré also illustrated an oversized edition of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", an endeavor that earned him 30,000 francs from publisher Harper and Brothers in 1883.

Doré's English Bible (1866) was 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 New Bond Street. In 1869, Blanchard Jerrold, the son of Douglas William Jerrold, suggested that they work together to produce a comprehensive portrait of London. Jerrold had gotten the idea from The Microcosm of London produced by Rudolph Ackermann, William Pyne, and Thomas Rowlandson in 1808. Doré signed a five-year project with the publishers Grant & Co that involved his staying in London for three months a year. He was paid the vast sum of £10,000 a year for his work.

The book, London: A Pilgrimage, with 180 engravings, was published in 1872. It enjoyed commercial success, but the work was disliked by many contemporary critics. Some critics were concerned with the fact that Doré appeared to focus on poverty that existed in London. Doré was accused by the Art Journal of "inventing rather than copying." The Westminster Review claimed that "Doré gives us sketches in which the commonest, the vulgarest external features are set down." The book was also a financial success, and Doré received commissions from other British publishers. Doré's later works included Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Milton's Paradise Lost, Tennyson's The Idylls of the King, The Works of Thomas Hood, and The Divine Comedy. His work also appeared in the Illustrated London News. Doré continued to illustrate books until his death in Paris in 1883. He is buried in the city's Père Lachaise Cemetery.

In "Pickman's Model", author H. P. Lovecraft's praises Doré: "There's something those fellows catch - beyond life - that they're able to make us catch for a second. Doré had it. [[Sidney Sime|[Sidney] Sime]] has it."

Gallery

Works

Doré was a prolific artist; thus the following list of works, though extensive, is by no means comprehensive (e.g. it does not include his sculptures, paintings, nor many of his journal illustrations):

List of Works
Date Author Work Volumes / Format Drawings Publisher Ref
1855 Honoré de Balzac Les Contes Drôlatiques 425 Société Générale de la Libraire, and in Le Journal pour Tous
1856 Fierabras d'Alexandrie, Légende Nationale traduite par Mary Lafon 1 vol in 8vo 123 Librairie Nouvelle
1856 Mémoires d'un Jeune Cadet, par Victor Percival 48
1856 La Légende du Juif Errant 1 vol. grand in folio 12 Michel Lévy
1857 Dante Alighieri ''L'Enfer 70
1857 autumn Ed. de La Bédollière Nouveau Paris, Histoire de ses 20 Arrondissements 1 vol in 4to 150 Barba
1857 autumn Valéry Vernier Aline, Journal d'un Jeune Homme, one large page Dentu
1860-1862 Thomas Mayne Reid L'Habitation du Désert, 1 vol. in 16mo 60 Hachette
1860-1862 Ann S. Stevens La Fille du Grand Chieftain 1 vol. 15
1860-1862 M. V. Victor Flêche d'Or 1 vol. 13
1860-1862 E. S. Ellis L'Ange des Frontières 1 vol. 10
1860-1862 N. W. Buxted Les Vierges de la Forêt 1 vol. 10
1860 William Shakespeare The Tempest 1 vol. in 4to (London)
1861 Les Figures du Temps, 1 vol. in 12mo (Paris)
1861 Plouvier and Vincent Les Chansons d'Autrefois in 12mo Coulon and Pineau, Paris
1861 Edmond About Le Roi des Montagnes 1 vol. in 8vo 157 Hachette and Co., Paris
1862 Saintine Les Mythologies du Rhin 1 vol. in 8vo 165 Hachette and Co., Paris
1862 L'Abbé Léon Godard L'Espagne, Mœurs et Paysages, 2 vols in 8vo 4 Alfred Mame et Fils, Tours or Paris
1862 Malte-Brun Les États Unis et le Mexique 1 vol. in 4to Brun, Paris
1862 Histoire aussi intéressante qu'invraisemblable de l'intrépide Capitaine Castagnette, neveu de l'Homme à la Tête de Bois 1 vol. in 4to 43 Hachette
1866 Aventures du Baron de Münchausen, traduction nouvelle par Théophile Gautier fils 1 vol. (London)
1863 M. Épiné Légende de Croquemitaine 1 vol. in 4to 177 Hachette
1863 Gastineau La Chasse au Lion et à la Panthère 1 vol. in 8vo Hachette and Co.
1863 Miguel de Cervantes Don Quixote de la Mancha translation by Louis Viardot 2 vols. folio 370 Hachette and Co., Paris, and Cassell and Co., London
1863 Les Contes de Perrault or in Spanish Los Cuentos de Perrault 100+ Hetzels. in Spanish by Ledouse
1865 Gastineau De Paris en Afrique 1 vol. in 12mo (Paris)
1865 A. Masse L'Histoire d'un Minute 1 vol., 12mo (Paris)
1866 Victor Hugo Travailleurs de la Mer Sampson Low and Co., London
1865 E. Edgar Cressy and Poictiers 1 vol. in 8vo 50+ (London)
1865 Thomas Moore L'Épicurien (French translation) in 8vo (Paris)
1865 Falmy Realm in folio (London)
1865 Quatrelles Le Chevalier Beautemps grand in 8vo (Paris)
1865 Chateaubriand Atala 2 vols, grand folio 80 Hachette Edition
1866 Théophile Gautier Le Capitaine Fracasse 1 vol. grand in 8vo 60 Charpentier
1866 G. La Bédollière Histoire de la Guerre en Mexique in 4to (Paris)
1867 Dante Alighieri Il Purgatorio ed il Paradiso Hachette and Co.
1866 X. B. Saintine Le Chemin des Écoliers 1 vol. in 8vo 450 (not all by Doré) Hachette and Co.
1866 La Sainte Bible, according to the Vulgate, new translation 2 vols. grand in folio 200+ Mame, Tours; Cassell and Co., England
1866 John Milton Paradise Lost Cassell and Co.
1867 La Bédollière La France et la Russie (Paris)
1867 Les Fables de Lafontaine 2 vols. in folio 8 large and 250 small plates Hachette and Co.
1867 Les Pays-bas et la Belgique in 8vo (Paris)
1870 Thomas Hood (Poems) 2 vols. in folio Ward and Lock, London
1870 Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner grand in 4to 40 large and 3 small drawings
1873 New edition of Rabelais 2 vols. in folio Paris : Garnier; London: Chatto and Windus
1876 Louis Énault London 1 vol. in 4to 174 wood engravings Hachette and Co.
1874 Baron Ch. Davilliers L'Espagne in 4to 309 wood-engravings Hachette and Co.; London: Sampson Low and Co.
1875 Michaud Histoire des Croisades 2 vol. medium folio 100 grand compositions Paris: Hachette and Co.
Alfred Tennyson Idylls of the King
1877 Ariosto Orlando Furioso 36 drawings Hachette and Co. (London: Ward and Lock)
1884 Edgar Allan Poe The Raven 26 steel engravings London: Sampson Low and Co., New York: Harper and Co.

Notes

References

  • 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), Dresden: Verlag der Kunst. (521 illustrations, reprinting most of the Delorme photogravures)
  • (1983). Gustave Doré 1832-1883. Strasbourg: Musee d'Art Moderne. (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)
  • (2006). Fantasy & Faith: the Art of Gustave Doré. New Haven: Yale University Press. (exhibition book: 160 illustrations, 120 in full-color)

External links



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