All Topics  
Gustave Doré

 
Gustave Doré

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Gustave Doré
 
 
  Topics Gustave Doré Topic Home

Paul Gustave Doré (; January 6, 1832 – January 23, 1883) was a French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 artist
Artist

The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art....
, engraver, illustrator
Illustrator

An illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text....
 and sculptor
Sculpture

Sculpture is Three-dimensional space artwork created by shaping or combining hard and or plastic material, sound, and or text and or light, commonly Stone sculpture , metal, glass, or wood....
. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving
Wood engraving

Wood engraving is a relief printing technique, where the end grain of wood is used as a medium for engraving, thus differing from the older technique of woodcut, where the softer side grain is used....
 and steel engraving
Steel engraving

Steel engraving, is a commercial engraving technique for printing illustrations, based on steel instead of copper. It has been rarely used in artistic printmaking, although was much used for reproductions in the 19th century....
.

Life
Doré was born in Strasbourg
Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace Regions of France in northeastern France. With 702,412 inhabitants in 2007, its metropolitan area is the Aire urbaine....
 and his first illustrated story was published at the age of fifteen. Doré began work as a literary illustrator in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
. Doré commissions include works by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton
John Milton

John Milton II was an English poet, author, polemicist and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England. He is best known for his Epic poetry Paradise Lost and for his treatise condemning censorship, Areopagitica....
 and Dante
Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante Alighieri, was a Florence poet of the Middle Ages. His Magnum opus, the Divine Comedy , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature....
. In 1853 Doré was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Gustave Doré'
Start a new discussion about 'Gustave Doré'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Paul Gustave Doré (; January 6, 1832 – January 23, 1883) was a French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 artist
Artist

The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art....
, engraver, illustrator
Illustrator

An illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text....
 and sculptor
Sculpture

Sculpture is Three-dimensional space artwork created by shaping or combining hard and or plastic material, sound, and or text and or light, commonly Stone sculpture , metal, glass, or wood....
. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving
Wood engraving

Wood engraving is a relief printing technique, where the end grain of wood is used as a medium for engraving, thus differing from the older technique of woodcut, where the softer side grain is used....
 and steel engraving
Steel engraving

Steel engraving, is a commercial engraving technique for printing illustrations, based on steel instead of copper. It has been rarely used in artistic printmaking, although was much used for reproductions in the 19th century....
.

Life


Doré was born in Strasbourg
Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace Regions of France in northeastern France. With 702,412 inhabitants in 2007, its metropolitan area is the Aire urbaine....
 and his first illustrated story was published at the age of fifteen. Doré began work as a literary illustrator in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
. Doré commissions include works by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton
John Milton

John Milton II was an English poet, author, polemicist and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England. He is best known for his Epic poetry Paradise Lost and for his treatise condemning censorship, Areopagitica....
 and Dante
Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante Alighieri, was a Florence poet of the Middle Ages. His Magnum opus, the Divine Comedy , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature....
. 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
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
. In 1863, Doré illustrated a French edition of Cervantes
Cervantes

Cervantes refers to:...
's Don Quixote
Don Quixote

, fully titled is an early novel written by Spain author Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes created a fictional origin for the story based upon a manuscript by the invented Moors historian, Cide Hamete Benengeli....
, and his illustrations of the knight and his squire Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza

Sancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spain author Miguel de Cervantes in 1602. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote, and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humor, ironic Spanish proverbs, and earthy wit....
 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
Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, Short story writer, Editing and Literary criticism, and is considered part of the American Romanticism. Best known for his tales of Mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the Detective fiction genre....
's "The Raven
The Raven

"The Raven" is a narrative poetry by the United States writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere....
", an endeavor that earned him 30,000 franc
Franc

The franc is the name of several currency units, most notably the French franc, the currency of France until it adopted the euro in 1999 , and the Swiss franc, still a major world currency today due to the prominence of Switzerland Banking in Switzerland....
s from publisher Harper & Brothers
Harper & Brothers

Harper & Brothers was a prominent New York City book and magazine publishing firm which founded Harper's Magazine.James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishing business J....
 in 1883.

Doré's English Bible (1866) was a great success, and in 1867 Doré had a major exhibition of his work in London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
. This exhibition led to the foundation of the Doré Gallery in New Bond Street. In 1869, Blanchard Jerrold, the son of Douglas William Jerrold
Douglas William Jerrold

Douglas William Jerrold was an England dramatist and writer.He was born in London. His father, Samuel Jerrold, was an actor and lessee of the little theatre of Wilsby near Cranbrook, Kent in Kent; but in 1807 he moved to Sheerness....
, 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
Rudolph Ackermann

Rudolph Ackermann was an Anglo-German inventor and publisher....
, William Pyne, and Thomas Rowlandson
Thomas Rowlandson

Thomas Rowlandson was an English artist and caricaturist....
 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
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an England poet, critic and Philosophy who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romanticism in England and one of the Lake Poets....
's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Milton
John Milton

John Milton II was an English poet, author, polemicist and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England. He is best known for his Epic poetry Paradise Lost and for his treatise condemning censorship, Areopagitica....
's Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century England poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books....
, Tennyson's The Idylls of the King
Idylls of the King

File:Idylls of the King 1.jpgIdylls of the King, published between 1856 and 1885, is a Literature cycle of twelve narrative poems by the English poet Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson which retells the legend of King Arthur, his knights, his love for Guinevere and her tragic betrayal of him, following the rise and fall of Arthur and...
, The Works of Thomas Hood
Thomas Hood

Thomas Hood was a United Kingdom humorist and poet. His son, Tom Hood, became a well known playwright and editor....
, and The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy , written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature....
. 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
Pickman's Model

"Pickman's Model" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in September 1926 in literature and first published in the October 1927 in literature issue of Weird Tales....
", author H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an United States author of horror fiction, fantasy fiction, and science fiction, known then simply as weird fiction....
 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

Sidney Sime was an England artist in the late Victorian era and succeeding periods, mostly remembered for his fantastic and satirical artwork, especially his story illustrations for Irish author Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany....
 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
DateAuthorWorkVolumes / FormatIllustrationsPublisherRef
1854Rabelais Oeuvres contenant la vie de Gargantua et celle de Pantagruel ...
Gargantua and Pantagruel

The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel is a connected series of five novels written in the 16th century by Fran?ois Rabelais. It is the story of two giant , a father and his son and their adventures, written in an amusing, extravagant, satire vein....
1 vol. 4to. Frontis. & 15 J.Bry Ainé, Paris  
1855Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac

Honor? de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a Novel sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Com?die humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napol?on Bonaparte in 1815....
Les Contes Drôlatiques 425Société Générale de la Libraire, and in Le Journal pour Tous 
1856 Fierabras d'Alexandrie, Légende Nationale traduite par Mary Lafon1 vol in 8vo123Librairie Nouvelle 
1856 Mémoires d'un Jeune Cadet, par Victor Percival 48  
1856 La Légende du Juif Errant
Wandering Jew

The Wandering Jew is a figure from medieval Christian mythology whose legend began to spread in Europe in the thirteenth century and became a fixture of Christian mythology, and, later, of Romanticism....
1 vol. grand in folio12Michel Lévy 
1857Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante Alighieri, was a Florence poet of the Middle Ages. His Magnum opus, the Divine Comedy , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature....
L'Enfer 70  
1857 autumnEd. de La BédollièreNouveau Paris, Histoire de ses 20 Arrondissements1 vol in 4to150Barba 
1857 autumnValéry VernierAline, Journal d'un Jeune Homme, one large pageDentu  
1860-1862Thomas Mayne ReidL'Habitation du Désert,1 vol. in 16mo60Hachette 
1860-1862Ann S. StevensLa Fille du Grand Chieftain1 vol.15  
1860-1862M. V. VictorFlêche d'Or1 vol.13  
1860-1862E. S. EllisL'Ange des Frontières1 vol.10  
1860-1862N. W. BuxtedLes Vierges de la Forêt1 vol.10  
1860William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
The Tempest
The Tempest

The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610?11, although some researchers have argued for an earlier dating. Its protagonist is the banished sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, who uses his magical powers to punish and forgive his enemies when he raises a tempest that drives them ashore....
1 vol. in 4to (London) 
1861 Les Figures du Temps,1 vol. in 12mo (Paris) 
1861Plouvier and VincentLes Chansons d'Autrefoisin 12mo Coulon and Pineau, Paris 
1861Edmond About
Edmond François Valentin About

Edmond Fran?ois Valentin About , was a French novelist, publicist and journalist....
Le Roi des Montagnes1 vol. in 8vo157Hachette and Co., Paris 
1862SaintineLes Mythologies du Rhin1 vol. in 8vo165Hachette and Co., Paris 
1862L'Abbé Léon GodardL'Espagne, Mœurs et Paysages,2 vols in 8vo4Alfred Mame et Fils, Tours or Paris 
1862Malte-Brun
Conrad Malte-Brun

Conrad Malte-Brun, born Malthe Conrad Bruun , was a Denmark-France geographer and journalist. His second son, Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun, was also a geographer....
Les États Unis et le Mexique1 vol. in 4to Brun, Paris 
1862 Histoire aussi intéressante qu'invraisemblable de l'intrépide Capitaine Castagnette, neveu de l'Homme à la Tête de Bois1 vol. in 4to43Hachette 
1866 Aventures du Baron de Münchausen, traduction nouvelle par Théophile Gautier fils1 vol. (London) 
1863M. ÉpinéLégende de Croquemitaine1 vol. in 4to177Hachette 
1863GastineauLa Chasse au Lion et à la Panthère1 vol. in 8vo Hachette and Co. 
1863Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel by many, is a classic of Western literature and is regularly regarded among the best novels ever written....
Don Quixote de la Mancha translation by Louis Viardot2 vols. folio370Hachette 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 
1865GastineauDe Paris en Afrique1 vol. in 12mo (Paris) 
1865A. MasseL'Histoire d'un Minute1 vol., 12mo (Paris) 
1866Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo was a France poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romanticism movement in France....
Travailleurs de la Mer Sampson Low and Co., London 
1865E. EdgarCressy and Poictiers1 vol. in 8vo50+(London) 
1865Thomas MooreL'Épicurien (French translation)in 8vo (Paris) 
1865 Falmy Realmin folio (London) 
1865QuatrellesLe Chevalier Beautempsgrand in 8vo (Paris) 
1865Chateaubriand
François-René de Chateaubriand

Fran?ois-Ren?, vicomte de Chateaubriand was a France writer, France during the 19th century. He is considered the founder of Romanticism in French literature....
Atala2 vols, grand folio80Hachette Edition 
1866Théophile GautierLe Capitaine Fracasse1 vol. grand in 8vo60Charpentier 
1866G. La BédollièreHistoire de la Guerre en Mexiquein 4to (Paris) 
1867Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante Alighieri, was a Florence poet of the Middle Ages. His Magnum opus, the Divine Comedy , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature....
Il Purgatorio ed il Paradiso Hachette and Co. 
1866X. B. SaintineLe Chemin des Écoliers1 vol. in 8vo450(not all by Doré)Hachette and Co. 
1866 La Sainte Bible, according to the Vulgate, new translation2 vols. grand in folio200+Mame, Tours; Cassell and Co., England 
1866John Milton
John Milton

John Milton II was an English poet, author, polemicist and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England. He is best known for his Epic poetry Paradise Lost and for his treatise condemning censorship, Areopagitica....
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century England poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books....
 Cassell and Co. 
1867La BédollièreLa France et la Russie (Paris) 
1867 Les Fables de Lafontaine2 vols. in folio8 large and 250 small platesHachette and Co. 
1867 Les Pays-bas et la Belgiquein 8vo (Paris) 
1870Thomas Hood(Poems)2 vols. in folio Ward and Lock, London 
1870Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an England poet, critic and Philosophy who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romanticism in England and one of the Lake Poets....
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest major poem by the England poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge written in 1797?98 and published in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads ....
grand in 4to40 large and 3 small drawings  
1873 New edition of Rabelais2 vols. in folio Paris : Garnier; London: Chatto and Windus 
1876Louis ÉnaultLondon1 vol. in 4to174 wood engravingsHachette and Co. 
1874Baron Ch. DavilliersL'Espagnein 4to309 wood-engravingsHachette and Co.; London: Sampson Low and Co. 
1875MichaudHistoire des Croisades2 vol. medium folio100 grand compositionsParis: Hachette and Co. 
Alfred TennysonIdylls of the King
Idylls of the King

File:Idylls of the King 1.jpgIdylls of the King, published between 1856 and 1885, is a Literature cycle of twelve narrative poems by the English poet Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson which retells the legend of King Arthur, his knights, his love for Guinevere and her tragic betrayal of him, following the rise and fall of Arthur and...
  
1877AriostoOrlando Furioso
Orlando Furioso

Orlando Furioso is an Italian literature romance epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532....
 36 drawingsHachette and Co. (London: Ward and Lock) 
1884Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, Short story writer, Editing and Literary criticism, and is considered part of the American Romanticism. Best known for his tales of Mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the Detective fiction genre....
The Raven
The Raven

"The Raven" is a narrative poetry by the United States writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere....
 26 steel engravingsLondon: Sampson Low and Co., New York: Harper and Co. 


External links

  • (24 MByte PDF with 120 illustrations)
  • :Christian website compiling Dore's numerous Biblical illustrations
  • :A massive bronze that was exhibited to acclaim at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and later moved to San Francisco
  • Doré Dante illustrations in the World of Dante gallery