Gustave Doré

illustrator

Gustave Doré, in full Paul Gustave Doré, (January 6, 1832 — January 23, 1883) was a French printmaker, one of the most successful book illustrators of the late 19th century, whose exuberant and bizarre imagination created vast, dream-like scenes widely emulated by academics.

In 1847, he went to Paris and, from 1848 to 1851, he produced weekly lithographic caricatures for the Journal pour Rire and several albums of lithographs (1847–54). His later fame rested on his wood-engraved book illustrations. Employing more than forty woodcutters, he produced over ninety illustrated books. Among his finest were an edition of the Oeuvres de Rabelais (1854), Les Contes Drolatiques of Balzac (1855), the large-folio Bible (1866), and the Inferno of Dante (1861). He also painted many large compositions of a religious or historical character and had some success as a sculptor; his work in those media however lacks the spontaneous vivacity of his illustrations.