Background

Gustave Dore was born on January 6, 1832 in Strasbourg, France. The son of Pierre Louis Christophe Dore and Marie Alexandrine Pluchart. He also had three brothers, Leon Dore, Ernest Dore and Paul Emile Dore, and a sister, Caroline Virginie Dore.

By age 5 Gustave was a prodigy artist, creating drawings that were mature beyond his years. Seven years later, he began carving in stone.

His father died in 1849.

Career

At the age of 15, Dore began his career working as a caricaturist for the French paper "Le Journal pour rire". In the late 1840s and early 1850s he made several text comics, like "Les Travaux d'Hercule" (1847), "Trois artistes incompris et mécontents" (1851), "Les Dés-agréments d'un voyage d'agrément" (1851) and "L'Histoire de la Sainte Russie" (1854). Dore subsequently won commissions to depict scenes from books by Cervantes, Rabelais, Balzac, Milton, and Dante.

In 1853 Dore was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron. This commission was followed by additional work for British publishers, including a new illustrated Bible. In 1856 he produced 12 folio-size illustrations of "The Legend of The Wandering Jew".

In the 1860s he illustrated a French edition of Cervantes's "Don Quixote". Dore 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.

Dore's illustrations for the Bible (1866) were a great success, and in 1867 Dore had a major exhibition of his work in London. This exhibition led to the foundation of the Dore Gallery in Bond Street, London. Later Dore signed a five-year contract with the publishers "Grant & Co" that involved his staying in London for three months a year.

His completed book "London: A Pilgrimage", with 180 engravings, was published in 1872. The book was a financial success, however, and Dore received commissions from other British publishers.

Dore's later work included illustrations for new editions of "Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner", "Milton's Paradise Lost", "Tennyson's Idylls of the King", "The Works of Thomas Hood", and "The Divine Comedy". His work also appeared in the weekly newspaper "The Illustrated London News".

Gustave Dore illustrated books until his death on January 23, 1883 in Paris, France, following a short illness.

Achievements

• Gustave Dore was a world famous 19th century illustrator. Although he illustrated over 200 books, some with more than 400 plates, he is primarily known for his illustrations to "The Divine Comedy", particularly "The Inferno", his illustrations to "Don Quixote", Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven".
  
  Moreover, the government of France made him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1861.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Apparition of St. George on the Mount of Olives

  • The Creation of Fish and Birds

  • Glorious death of Jacques de Maille Marshal of the temple

  • And now on earth the seventh Evening arose in Eden

  • The Raven (Cover)

  • Apocalyptic Procession

  • Tavern in Whitechapel

  • Astonishment of the Crusaders at the Wealth of the East

  • Jacob Keeping Laban's Flock

  • The Christian Martyrs

  • Don Quixote

  • Discovery of The True Cross

  • Don Quixote

  • An Angel Appears to the Israelites

  • Don Quixote

  • Don Quixote

  • Don Quixote

  • Andromeda

  • Christ Presented To The People

  • An angel leading the Crusaders to Jerusalem

  • Don Quixote

  • Christian Cavaliers Captive at Cairo

  • The Dove Sent Forth From The Ark

  • Slaughter of the Sons of Zedekiah before their Father

  • A Souvenir from Scotland

  • Alichino & Calcabrina

  • The Army of Priest Volkmar and Count Emocio attack Merseburg

  • Cocytus--Traitors

  • The Children's Crusade in 1212

  • Back to the thicket slunk The guilty serpent

  • Devils and Virgil

  • Gargantua

  • Jacob Goeth Into Egypt

  • Saul and the Witch of Endor

  • Christ Feeding The Multitude

  • Don Quixote

  • Don Quixote

  • Artaxerxes Granting Liberty to the Jews

  • Death of Frederick I of Germany

  • Benediction

  • Battle of Lepanto in 1571

  • Don Quixote

  • Don Quixote

  • Jacob Wrestling with the Angel

  • Crystalline Heaven

  • Cinderella

  • The Road to Jerusalem

  • Constantine Palaeologus Haranguing the Defenders of Constantinople

  • Devils and Barrators

  • The Hare and the Frogs

  • David Slays Goliath

  • The Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones

  • Satan in Council

  • Don Quixote

  • A Message from the East

  • Don Quixote

  • St. Francis of Assisi

  • St. Louis leaving Aigues-Mortes

  • Beatrice & Virgil

  • The Clash of the Titans

  • Buonconte Da Montefeltro

  • A Friendly Tournament during the Third Crusade in 1189

  • Portrait of Dante Alighieri

  • Adam and Eve

  • Arrival Of The Good Samaritan At The Inn

  • The Battle of Nicaea in 1097

  • The Seven League Boots

  • Bertram De Born

  • Confession

  • The Vision of Death

  • Cyrus Restoring the Vessels of the Temple

  • Cain and Abel Offering their Sacrifices

  • Richard I the Lionheart in battle at Arsuf in 1191

  • Gerard of Avesnes exposed on the walls of Arsuf

  • Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts

  • Amateur From Garden

  • The Crusaders' War Machinery

  • Dandolo, Doge of Venice, Preaching the Crusade

  • Beatrice

  • Don Quixote

  • Abraham Journeying Into the Land of Canaan

  • A Famine in Samaria

  • Barthelemi undergoing the Ordeal of Fire

  • Don Quixote

  • Bohemond alone mounts the rampart of antioch crusades bohemond mounts rampart of antioch

  • Ancient Mariner

  • Semiramide, spidocchiatrice di straccioni

  • Brunetto Latini

  • The Adventure with the Windmills

  • Don Quixote

  • Crucified man

  • David Mourns the Death of Absalom

  • Christ Mocked

  • Battle of Antioch

  • The Lost Cow

  • The Escape of David through the Window

  • Don Quixote

  • The People Mourning over the Ruins of Jerusalem, Lamentations 1:1-2

  • Richard I the Lionheart massacres captives in reprisal

  • Baruch

  • Don Quixote

  • Plate no. 26 Book VI line 406 'Now Night her Course began..'

  • David Shows Saul How He Spared His Life

  • Richard I the Lionheart delivering Jaffa

  • Illustration For Charles Perraults Bluebeard

  • Assassination of Henry of Germany

  • Second assault of Jerusalem by the Crusaders repulsed

  • Gargantua

  • Don Quixote

  • Don Quixote

  • Dante and Pope Adrian V

  • Don Quixote and Sancho Setting Out

  • Satan's Flight Through Chaos

  • Began to build a vessel of huge bulk

  • A Heroine Florine of Burgundy

  • Burying the Dead After the Battle of Dorylaeum

  • The Martyrdom of the Holy Innocents

  • Crusaders surrounded by Saladin's army

  • Abdiel and Satan

  • Don Quixote

  • A Friendly Tournament

  • The Giant Antaeus

  • Houndsditch

  • Don Quixote

  • Death of Baldwin I the Latin King of Jerusalem

  • The Oceanides

  • Adam and Eve Are Driven out of Eden

  • Don Quixote

  • Cyrus Restores the Vessels of the Temple

  • Barrators--Giampolo

  • Babylon Fallen

  • Cacciaguida

  • The Enchantment of Don Quixote

  • Don Quixote

  • An Angel Appears to Balaam

  • Jesus Blessing the Children

  • Daniel in the Den of Lions

  • Ascent to the Fifth Circle

  • ChristIn The Synagogue

  • Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople in 1204

  • Crusade against the moors of Granada

  • A Levite Finds a Woman's Corpse

  • Don Quixote

  • Devils and Seducers

  • Blondel hears the voice of Richard the Lionheart

  • David Attacks the Ammonites

  • Daniel Confounds the Priests of Bel

  • Don Quixote

  • Little Red Riding Hood

  • Conversion Of Saul

  • Don Quixote

  • Achan Is Stoned to Death

  • Bluebeard

  • Death of Eleazer

  • Don Quixote

  • A Celestial Light

  • Сorrida

  • The Children Destroyed by Bears

  • A Canyon

  • Cinderella

  • The wrestle of Jacob

  • The Punishment of the Simonists

  • And now expecting Each hour their great adventurer, from the search Of foreign worlds

  • Don Quixote

  • A Mountainous Landscape with A Balloon

  • The army of the Second Crusade find the remains of the soldiers of the First Crusade

  • Arrival at Cairo of Prisoners of Minich

  • Daniel Interpreting the Writing on the Wall

  • Illustration for Baron von Münchhausen

  • Abishai Saves David's Life

  • Christ And The Tribute Money

  • Abraham, God and Two Angels

  • The Crusaders massacre the inhabitants of Caesarea

  • Crusaders Throwing Heads into Nicaea

  • All dwellings else Flood overwhelmed, and them, with all their pomp Deep under water rolled

  • Dispersion of the Syrian Army by a Sand Storm

  • Ecce Homo

  • An Enemy of the Crusaders

  • A Voyage to the Moon

  • The Enigma

  • Combat between Soldiers of Ish-bosheth and David

  • Death of Almoadam

  • The Two Goats

  • Death Of Ananias

  • The Confusion of Tongues

  • Daniel among the Exiles

  • Deborah, engraved by Ettlin

  • Destruction at Damascus of the Army of Conrad III of Germany

  • The Burial of Sarah

  • Baruch Writes Jeremiah's Prophecies

  • Death of Samson

  • Arachne

  • And seems a moving land and at his gills Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea

  • Don Quixote

  • Beatrice II

  • David and Jonathan

  • The Conversion of St. Paul

  • Edward I of England kills his would be assassin in June 1272

  • Godfrey enters Jerusalem

  • Don Quixote

Connections

Dore was never married.

Father:

Pierre Louis Christophe Dore

Mother:

Marie Alexandrine Pluchart

Brother:

Leon Dore

Brother:

Ernest Dore

Brother:

Paul Emile Dore

Sister:

Caroline Virginie Dore

References

• The Drawings of Gustave Doré
• Gustave Doré (1832-1883): Master of Imagination
• Gustave Dore: 151 Paintings and Engravings