Gustave Doré
Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6January 1832 – 23January 1883) was a French
printmaker,
illustrator,
painter,
comics artist,
caricaturist, and
sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of
wood-engravings illustrating
classic literature, especially
those for the Vulgate Bible and Dante's ''
Divine Comedy''. These achieved great international success, and he became renowned for printmaking, although his role was normally as the designer only; at the height of his career some 40
block-cutters were employed to cut his drawings onto the wooden printing blocks, usually also signing the image.
He created over 10,000
illustrations, the most important of which were copied using an
electrotype process using
cylinder presses, allowing very large print runs to be published simultaneously in many countries.
Although Doré's work was popular with the general public during his life, it was met with mixed reviews from contemporary art critics. His work has been more widely celebrated in the centuries following his death. Among his admirers were writers
H. P. Lovecraft and
Théophile Gautier.
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