Photograph by Nadar, 1867.
6 January 1832|
|Died||23 January 1883
|Known for||Painting, engraving, illustrations|
Doré was born in Strasbourg on 6 January 1832. At age five he had been a prodigy troublemaker, playing pranks that were mature beyond his years. Seven years later, he began carving in cement. At the age of fifteen Doré began his career working as a caricaturist for the French paper Le Journal pour rire, and subsequently went on to win commissions to depict scenes from books 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 1856 he produced twelve folio-size illustrations of The Legend of The Wandering Jew for a short poem which Pierre-Jean de Ranger had derived from a novel of Eugène Sue of 1845.
In the 1860s he illustrated a French edition of Cervantes's Don Quixote, and his depictions 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.
Doré's illustrations for the English Bible (1866) were 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 Bond Street, London. In 1869, Blanchard Jerrold, the son of Douglas William Jerrold, suggested that they work together to produce a comprehensive portrait of London. Jerrold had obtained the idea from The Microcosm of London produced by Rudolph Ackermann, William Pyne, and Thomas Rowlandson in 1808. Doré signed a five-year contract with the publishers Grant & Co that involved his staying in London for three months a year, and he received the vast sum of £10,000 a year for the project. Doré was mainly celebrated for his paintings in his day. His paintings remain world renowned, but his woodcuts and engravings, like those he did for Jerrold, are where he really excelled as an artist with an individual vision.
The completed book, London: A Pilgrimage, with 180 engravings, was published in 1872. It enjoyed commercial and popular success, but the work was disliked by many contemporary critics. Some of these critics were concerned with the fact that Doré appeared to focus on the poverty that existed in parts of 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 a financial success, however, and Doré received commissions from other British publishers.
Doré's later work included illustrations for new editions of 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. Doré's work also appeared in the weekly newspaper The Illustrated London News.
Doré never married and, following the death of his father in 1849, he continued to live with his mother, illustrating books until his death in Paris following a short illness. The city's Père Lachaise Cemetery contains his grave.
|Gallery of Gustave Doré|
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):
|Date||Author||Work||Volumes / Format||Illustrations||Publisher||Ref|
|1854||Gustave Doré||Histoire pittoresque dramatique et caricaturale de la Sainte Russie, d'après les chroniqueurs et historiens Nestor Nikan Sylvestre Karamsin Ségur etc.||1 vol.||500||Paris: de Bry|||
|1854||Rabelais||Oeuvres contenant la vie de Gargantua et celle de Pantagruel ...||1 vol. 4to.||Frontis. & 15||J.Bry Ainé, Paris|||
|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 Image:Wandering jew title page.jpg||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 Image:Moeurs et paysages title page.jpg||Alfred Mame et Fils, Tours Image:Moeurs et paysages title page.jpg 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|||
|1862||Charles Perrault||Les Contes de Perrault||11|||
|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||Tom Hood||Fairy Realm||in folio||(London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler)|||
|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)|||
|1866||Dante Alighieri||The Vision of Hell||London, Cassell, Petter, and Galpin|||
|1867||Dante Alighieri||Il Purgatorio ed il Paradiso||Hachette and Co.|||
|1866||X. B. Saintine||Le Chemin des Écoliers||1 vol. in 8vo||450 Image:Le chemin des ecoliers title page.jpg(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||50 Plates||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||9 Plates||Ward and Lock, London|||
|1870||Samuel Taylor 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.|||
- Lyons, Martin (2011). Books: A Living Histroy. Los Angeles: Getty Publications. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-60606-083-4.
- Complete Works of Lord Byron illustrated by Ch. Mettais, Bocourt, G. Doré. Published by J. Bry, Paris, 1853. The version at archive.org is in French. The illustrations are not attributed to any one of the three named on the title page. A handwritten note at page 5 remarks that another edition of 1856 made no mention of Doré among the illustrators, but his designs still appeared in the book.
- Zafran, with Robert Rosenblum and Lisa Small, editors, Eric (2007). "Fantasy and Faith: The Art of Gustave Dore". Yale University Press.
- Among English language editions was that published in Philadelphia in 1873 by George Gebbie [dead link]
- and "with additional verses by Pierre Dupont in cooperation with Doré, 1857." Willis's price current: a catalogue of superior second hand books.
- Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. p. 252. ISBN 0-8018-5730-9
- Ackyroyd, Peter (2005). London: A Pilgrimage (introduction). Anthem Press. pp. xix.
- Chapman, J (1873). The Westminster Review, Vol 99. p. 341.
- indyworld.com Gustave Doré's «Holy Russia» by Bill Kartalopoulos. INDY Magazine, Summer 2004
- David Kunzle. "Gustave Dore's History of Holy Russia: Anti-Russian Propaganda from the Crimean War to the Cold War". Russian Review, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Jul., 1983), pp. 271-299. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
- Eleanor Garvey, A Catalogue of an Exhibition of the Philip Hofer Bequest, 1988.
- Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", page 183. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885.
- Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", page 207. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885.
- Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", pages 215. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885. Roosevelt states that "In Doré's catalogue 'L'Inferno' figures amongst the works of 1857, and I shall therefore speak of it as belonging to that year's collection, although it was not brought out until 1860."
- Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", pages 212-227. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885.
- Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", pages 241-243. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885.
- Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", pages 63. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885. Gustave Doré, Edmond About, and H. Taine were more than contemporaries: they knew each other from college. Roosevelt quotes Doré, "...from that date  until 1850, I occupied myself—sometimes well and sometimes badly—in finishing my studies at the Lycée Charlemagne. It was there that I was so fortunate as to have Edmond About and H. Taine for fellow-collegians."
- Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", pages 241. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885. Roosevelt attributes authorship to "Malted": "'Les États Unis et la Mexique,' by Malted (sic) (Brun, Paris, 1862), 1 vol. in 4to." She is most likely referring to either Conrad Malte-Brun or his son, Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun, both noted French Geographers.
- Opie, Iona and Peter. The Classic Fairy Tales. 1974. Oxford University Press. p. 134.
- Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", page 242. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885. Roosevelt implies, though does not specifically state, that a French publisher published this volume in 1865. For one, she places this reference with the other books published in 1865, for another, she uses the word also when mentioning that Sampson Low brought out a copy in London in 1866. Additionally, an English publication would most likely be translated and have a title of Toilers of the Sea. Roosevelt's line reads thus: "Victor Hugo's 'Travailleurs de la Mer,' also in 1866, brought out by Sampson Low and Co., in London."
- Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", page 242. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885. Roosevelt states that the preface was written by Alex. Dumas fils
- Although Blanche Roosevelt lists this book as being published in 1866, here Image:Le chemin des ecoliers title page.jpg is the title page of an edition published five years earlier, with Gustave Doré drawings. Roosevelt is most likely mistaken.
- Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", page 242. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885. Roosevelt titles this book "The Song (sic) of the Ancient Mariner". The error possibly derives from reverse-translating the French title (Le Chanson du Vieux Marin) back into English.
- Roosevelt, Blanche: "Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Doré.", page 488. Cassell & Company, Limited, New York, 1885.
- 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) ed.). Dresden: Verlag der Kunst.(521 illustrations, reprinting most of the Delorme photogravures)
- Gustave Doré 1832–1883. Strasbourg: Musée d'Art Moderne. 1983.(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)
- Fantasy & Faith: the Art of Gustave Doré. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2007. (exhibition book: 250 illustrations, 40 in full-color, sometimes incorrectly listed as, "40 b/w, 120 color illustrations")
- Bibliographie de la France (Journal General de l'Imprimerie et de la Librairie), 1811+ Check date values in:
|date=(help) (annual listing of the books published in France)
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gustave Doré.|
- Works by Gustave Doré at Project Gutenberg
- Gustave Doré Digital Collection of Illustrations from the University at Buffalo Libraries
- Doré's grave site at Cimetière du Père Lachaise
- German FTP with Doré illustrations
- Great Bible Tarot - deck based on biblical Gustave Dore illustrations
- Dor2 Bible Gallery
- Art Passions Doré online gallery
- Gallery of Illustrations by Gustave Doré
- "Illustrationen zu Don Quijote" (PDF). Arno Schmidt Reference Library. "24 MByte PDF with 120 illustrations"
- SurLaLune Fairy Tale Illustrations of Gustave Doré
- Bible Illustrations by G. Dor2, Christian website compiling Dore's numerous Biblical illustrations
- The "Dore Vase" in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, a massive bronze that was exhibited to acclaim at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and later moved to San Francisco
- Dore-illustrations (Bible, Dante, Ariosto, Rabelais, Milton, Cervantes, Tennyson, Poe, crusades, sketches) in the "History of Art"
- World of Dante Doré Dante illustrations in the World of Dante gallery
- Doré's illustrations for several books
- Elbert Hubbard's account of the life of Gustave Doré
- Gustave Doré at gravures.ru (Old Testament, New Testament, Milton - Paradise Lost, Lafontaine' Fables, Fairytales, Michaud - Crusades, Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quijote, Edgar Poe - Raven
- Illustrations for La Mythologie Du Rhin ("Myths of the Rhine") by M. Schele de Vere, 1874