Doré's Illustrations for Rabelais

by Gustave Doré

Generous sampling of Doré’s magnificent illustrations for Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel, including all 60 original full-page illustrations and 192 smaller works—all meticulously reproduced from rare original editions. Captions.

Genres: Art

153 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1978

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 5 out of 5]

I picked this up because the version of Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais I decided to read did not come with these illustrations like some of the other versions. Doré is an amazing illustrator. He has a fine eye for line. You won't get a lot of reading out of this book but you will get an eyeful of beautiful drawings.

[Wetdryvac Wetdryvac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Working largely with the illustrations, a most excellent experience.

[Rohit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doré is from another world