The Artistic Legacy of Gustave Doré

Paul Gustave Doré was born on January 6, 1832, in Strasbourg, France. He is considered one of the most important and prolific, as well as successful, book illustrators and mediators of late 19th-century European culture.

He was largely self-taught and even as a child, he showed his inclinations towards painting and drawing. In 1845, Doré arrived in Paris. In 1848, he became a contributor to the “Journal pour rire”.

With his rich and bizarre imagination, Gustave Doré created dreamlike scenes and illustrated works from world literature such as Dante’s “Inferno”, Cervantes’ “Don Quixote”, John Milton’s “Paradise Lost”, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”, works by Homer, Lord Byron, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and many others. The illustrations for Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” in 1868 were the crowning achievement of Doré’s career.

His diverse body of work includes various genres, from comics to Bible illustrations. Doré even had an impact on Hollywood film production. Some images in famous films such as King Kong, some creatures from the Star Wars universe, and the Dead Tree in Sleepy Hollow bear resemblance to Doré’s illustrations. He was also a painter, draftsman, etcher, and later even a sculptor.

The artist possessed a distinctive ductus, employing the clair-obscur technique to contrast light and dark paintings. His pieces exuded depth and mystique, often featuring intricate details and realistic depictions of fantastical creatures and showmen. Minimalistic yet dramatic, his drawings evoked intense emotion and created powerful imagery. The works that shaped him were grotesque, macabre, and filled with fantasy and exaggeration. Gustave Doré’s illustrations documented the Crimean War, the Commune of Paris, and the proletariat of London, while his watercolor landscapes were also highly acclaimed. Two of Doré’s most successful oil paintings were “Paolo and Francesca da Rimini” (1863) and “The Neophyte” (1868). His illustrations of the English Bible (1866) and fairy tales by Charles Perrault were also widely renowned.

In 1867, Doré held a major exhibition of his work in London, leading to the establishment of the Doré Gallery on New Bond Street.

However, not all of Doré’s engravings were crafted by his own hand. With a team of 40 employees, he was able to meet the high demand for his illustrations and drawings. His original works were sold in galleries in Vienna, London, and other cities, as well as reproductions of his book illustrations, bringing great financial success and a carefree life for the artist.

Five years before his death in 1877, Doré turned to sculpting. Without any formal training, he produced ingenious marble and bronze sculptures that left their mark on the art scene of the 1870s. His final work was a monument for Alexandre Dumas, a testament to his passion and talent as a sculptor.

Dore never married, instead remaining in the comforting bosom of his mother in the bustling city of Paris. His work ethic was unmatched, fervently producing an abundance of drawings despite the nagging feeling of inadequacy and perennially feeling misunderstood. The true extent of his prolific output of drawings remains a mystery, for he toiled tirelessly from sun-up to sundown, creating thousands of masterpieces.

Sadly, on 23rd of January, 1883, the world lost the remarkable Gustave Doré to a sudden heart attack.

www.ftn-books.com has several Dore items now available.