Dore Spot Illustrations: A Treasury from His Masterworks

by Gustave Doré, Carol Belanger Grafton

700 copyright-free prints by great 19th-century illustrator includes ready-to-reproduce cuts and engravings from Don Quixote, scenes from Baron de Munchausen and Fables of La Fontaine, witty caricatures from Rabelais and Balzac's Droll Stories.

Genres: Art

123 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1987

About the author

The most popular and successful French book illustrator of the mid 19th century. Doré became very widely known for his illustrations to such books as Dante's Inferno (1861), Don Quixote (1862), and the Bible (1866), and he helped to give European currency to the illustrated book of large . He was so prolific that at one time he employed more than forty blockcutters. His work is characterized by a rather naïve but highly spirited love of the grotesque and represents a commercialization of the Romantic taste for the bizarre. Drawings of London done in 1869-71 were more sober studies of the poorer quarters of the city and captured the attention of van Gogh. In the 1870s he also took up painting (doing some large and ambitions religious works) and sculpture (the monument to the dramatist and novelist Alexandre Dumas in the Place Malesherbes in Paris, erected in 1883, is his work).

Reviews

[Larissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The spot illustrations are frequently much simpler than the drawings Doré had done for literature. If you are looking for a book to study this style of drawing from, I think it would be a fine book to work attempting to copy, starting with the simplest drawings and moving on to the most complex. I found it a less interesting collection than other collections of his based on a theme, such as for Rabelais or Don Quijote.