Gustave Dore's illustrations are famous all over the world. He designed many books of the XIX century. His engravings and drawings for the Bible became especially popular. Perhaps this artist is the most famous illustrator in the history of printing. However, not everyone knows that Dore never received an art education, and he concluded the first contract with a salary of 5,000 francs per annum with the publishing house when he was 15 years old. His illustrator fame was overshadowed by the fact that the artist was also a talented painter and sculptor. The article offers a history and list, as well as images of some of the works of this outstanding master.
Childhood
Gustave Dore was born in 1832 on January 6 on the Nue-Blay street of Strasbourg in the family of bridge engineer Jean-Philippe Dore. Endowed with a keen sense of observation, the boy from childhood showed outstanding imagination and an unusual talent for drawing. His first album with drawings, dated 1842 (Gustave turned ten years old), demonstrates the amazing professionalism of the child: the presence of a title page, captions for illustrations and a table of contents. In a number of drawings, the boy applied the method of anthropomorphism, transferring human images to other animated creatures, for example, animals. Even then, his drawings reflected the humorous and lively manner inherent in the future artist.
Period of study
In 1840, Gustave's father, who was promoted to chief engineer of the “Corps of Bridges, Waters and Forests”, was appointed to the Department of En, and the whole family moved to the city of Burg-en-Bresse. There, Gustave Dore enters King's College and becomes one of the most successful students. However, he is most distinguished by his outstanding caricatures and drawings. The boy in detailed street scenes reflects the surrounding world of Burg. He is inspired by the work of cartoon illustrators Cham, Grandwin and Rodolfe, who was considered theorist and first creator of the art of comics. The style of young Dore becomes more refined, his previously tough line acquires flexibility and sensuality. When Gustave turned 13 years old (1845), one of the publishing houses of Bourg-en-Bresse published three of his lithographs, which became the earliest published works.
First work and album released
In 1847, the fifteen-year-old Dore moved with his mother to Paris, where he entered the Charlemagne Lyceum and began working on cartoons of his Diary for Laughter. He shows drawings to Charles Filipon, a Parisian publisher, master of political satire and director of the popular magazines Caricature and Charivari. The publisher offers Dore a three-year contract and sets aside a page for his drawings in Le Journal weekly. The young man created 1379 sketches for the newspaper, and this became a good practice for him with decent pay.
The young man soon becomes a prominent cartoonist at the publishing house, his images are distinguished by graphic innovation and sharp irony. But seeking to please both the intellectual and ruling circles, as well as to bypass scandals, he avoids political and social topics.
His first album of lithographs, “The exploits of Hercules,” which interprets ancient mythology, was released in 1847 by Aubert & Cie. Each page housed no more than three images with short captions, emphasizing the comic plot. Gustave Dore's drawings for this series, created under the influence of the work of illustrator Rodolf Topfer, made up a consistent narrative in the cartoons, which gave the impression of continuity and movement. After the release of the album and work in Le Journal, the artist quickly became famous and in 1848 made two pen drawings at the Paris Salon. After the death of his father (1849), he lived with his mother until her death in 1879.
The path to fame
In 1851, two albums by Dore were published by Aubert & Cie, one of which was Gratitude of Pleasure, which is today among the first French comics. In his technique, the illustrator used a lithographic pencil.
Since 1851, Gustave Dore exhibited his paintings for the first time and created sculptures on a religious theme. He collaborates with various magazines, including Journal pour tou. In 1854, publisher Joseph Bry published a novel by Rabelais, illustrated with hundreds of Dore prints. In 1873, Gustave will release another version of the illustrations for the works of this greatest French satirist.
In 1854, under the editorship of Joseph Bry, a book “Paris Menagerie” was published about the life in the capital with 99 grotesque drawings and 14 engravings by Gustave Dore. But this inexpensive publication with low print quality and a modest format did not meet the high ambitions of the artist. Becoming more and more famous, between 1852 and 1883 he illustrates more than 120 books that appear first in France, then in England, Germany and Russia.
"History of Holy Russia"
The book was published during the Crimean campaign in 1854, it contained more than 500 images and was considered strong political propaganda. This was Dore's first large-scale work, which became his only political and last satire album. The artist in a picturesque caricature form acted as an illustrator and narrator of the dramatic history of Russia - a country against which France and England came out with military operations. The album was created in the context of the broad nationalist movement of the beginning of the Crimean War and revived the western cliché of Russian “barbarism”. With the help of amazing graphic tricks, funny images and witty signatures, Dore displays the history of Russia very bloody and cruel, from the origins to the era of the modern artist. But the comic nature of military scenes, massacres and torture causes only a smile, not horror. The publication immediately after publication was incredibly famous in France.
Hone skill
In 1856, there was a creative breakthrough by Gustave Dore in the graphic art of a print. Illustrating Grenier's poem "The Wandering Jew", put to the music of Pierre Dupont, the artist improves the technique of color wood engraving. His innovations made it possible to paint with washing directly on the wood of the board and achieve an endless palette of tones, very close to the picturesque effects. Each such plate with an image and a short line from a poem has become a work of art. This work is considered progressive in the history of engraving, and it deservedly gained great social success.
Satisfied with the caricature and cartoons for the news, the talented engraver and artist Gustave Dore intends to express his abilities in illustrations for great literary works. Wanting to display them in the same format as The Wandering Jew, he compiles a list of thirty book masterpieces, including Dante's Hell, Don Quixote, Perrault's tales, works by Homer, Virgil, Aristotle, Milton, Shakespeare. Publishers refuse to make these luxurious publications because they must be too expensive. Dore works on engravings for Hell from Dante’s Divine Comedy and independently publishes them in 1861. The success of the publication exceeded all expectations, which can be summarized by one of the reviews: “The author (Dante) is overwhelmed by the draftsman. More than Dante, illustrated by Dore - this is Dore, which illustrates Dante. "
Peak of success
The 1860s were the richest in the work of Gustave Dore. The decade began with the fact that on August 13, 1861, the artist was awarded the Legion of Honor. This was followed by a trip to Spain in 1861 and 1862 with Baron Devillet, the result of which was a series of notes with drawings by Dore, Travels in Spain and Fighting Bulls, published from 1862 to 1873 in Le Tour du monde. For a long time, Gustave Dore worked on illustrations for the Bible, which was published in 1866 and became the artist's most world-famous masterpiece. In addition, over the course of a decade, he created stunning images for such great works:
- Shakespeare's “Storm” (1860) with five engravings;
- Hell (1861) with 76 images, Purgatory and Paradise (1868) with 60 illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy;
- The Adventures of Munchausen by Burger (1862) with 158 images;
- Don Quixote of Cervantes (1863) with 377 illustrations;
- "Atala" of Chateaubriand (1863) with 44 drawings;
- “The Hunt for Lions and Panthers in Africa” by Benjamin Gastino (1863) with 17 woodcuts;
- Sinbad the Sailor (1865) with 20 illustrations;
- “Captain Thracassus” by Gauthier (1866) with 60 drawings;
- “Workers of the Sea” by Hugo (1867) with 22 illustrations;
- 9 tales of Charles Perrault (1867);
- Fables of Lafontaine (1868) with 248 drawings;
- “Idylls of the King” Tennyson (1868) with 37 prints.
Painting
Throughout his creative career, Dore was equally prone to illustration and painting, not seeing incompatibility between them. He creates large canvases, such as “Dante in the ninth circle of hell” (1861), “The riddle” or “Christ leaving the praetorium” (1867-1872). Most critics reproach the artist for the fact that his painting is just an enlarged format illustration with the inherent composition of Dora, the overall plan, decor and character positioning. This judgment negatively affected Dora, who despaired of being recognized as a painter.
English period
The fame of prints and drawings by Dore spreads throughout Europe. The artist is met with huge success at the London exhibition, held in 1869. He stays in London for several months to create a graphic image of the capital of Britain for the publisher Grant & Co. His compositional art peaked in the design of the book London: The Pilgrimage by William Blanchard. And the graphics for the poem by Samuel Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1875) is one of the artist’s greatest masterpieces.
The illustrations by Gustave Dore from 1872 until the end of his life were decorated with such works:
- “London: Pilgrimage” by William Blanchard (1872), 180 images;
- Milton's Lost Paradise (1874), 50 illustrations;
- “London” by Louis Hainaut (1876), 174 engravings;
- The History of the Crusades by Michaud (1877), 100 prints;
- "Frantic Roland" by Ariosto (1878), 668 illustrations;
- The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe (1883), 23 engravings.
It is not known why, but contrary to what is sometimes written, Dore did not illustrate any of Jules Verne's works.
Death
Gustave Dore died of a heart attack at the age of 51 on January 23 in 1883. He left an impressive legacy that exceeds ten thousand works. His friend, a military figure in France, Ferdinand Foch , organized a service at the Paris Catholic Church, the Basilica of Saint Clotilde, a funeral in Pere Lachaise and a farewell meal on 73 Saint Dominic Street.
In 1931, Henri LeBlanc published a scientific study of the catalog-reason, which lists 9850 illustrations, 68 musical names, 5 posters, 51 original lithographs, 54 drawings with erosion, 526 drawings with pencil and ink, 283 watercolors, 133 paintings and 45 sculptures by Gustave Dore . The museum in Burg-en-Bresse stores the largest number of works of this outstanding man: 136 copies of oil painting, drawings, sculptures.