Gustave Doré

[Psychonaut]

Gustave Doré


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

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Paul_Gustave_Dore_by_Felix_Nadar_1855-1859.jpg


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 & Brothers in 1883.[1]

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 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 has it."
Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Dor%C3%A9)

Doré is perhaps my favorite graphic artist of all time, and is definitely my favorite French artist. I see his engravings as standing right alongside Dürer's as pinnacles of that particular form. Doré's work seems to me to have a depth and darkness that is unrivaled in woodcuts. Here are a few of my favorites:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Paradise_Lost_12.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Idylls_of_the_King_3.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Idylls_of_the_King_1.jpg

http://jealmeida.files.wordpress.com/2006/09/gustave_dore_paradise_lost_005.jpg

http://thelondondiary.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/death.jpg

http://gothic.g.o.pic.centerblog.net/pkxodnrx.jpg

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/499/tombinfernokr2.jpg

[Svipdag]

Albrecht Dürer has long been one of my favourite artists, but altogether too much of his work is known to us from his woodcuts. Unfortunately, Dürer did not cut his own woodblocks and many of his woodcuts are from blocks executed by indifferent craftsmen.

If we compare his best engravings with those of Doré, the two artists can be seen to be of comparable talent. Dürer never achieved the impressive chiaroscuro of Doré's engravings, however. It is not until the graphic work of Rembrandt van Rijn that anything comparable is to be found.

I have Gustave Doré's illustrated version of La Divina Commedia. The illustrations do not merely illustrate, but complement the text. Engraving on copper and steel attained a level of technical excellence in the 19th century which has not only never since been surpassed, but, indeed, has never been equalled. Photoengraving is vastly less expensive than steel-plate engraving
and this has deprived this fine graphic art of a market.

[Loxias]

Hah, my previous avatar spoke for itself. One of my favourite artists.
His work is masterly at evocating epic majestuosity and surnatural elevation.

[Óttar]

Albrecht Dürer has long been one of my favourite artists,
I was looking through a book of his woodcuts and I came across one of the Virgin Mary standing on a crescent moon and on the top was carved "ISIS" I was startled, but then I figured it was probably the date (1515). :D

[Mesrine]

Doré was a great artist, but he bores me. I'm amazed by his marvelous technique, but I'm not transported.

[Loxias]

That's the thing, his work transports me, to the point that I don't even notice the technicity anymore.

[Comte Arnau]

I can't help associating Doré with my first book of Quixote. And it's his engravings that I've consequently associated Quixote and Sancho with.


http://www.doreillustrations.com/donquixote/p003.jpg