Gustave Dore. Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Dore was a French artist, as a printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor.
He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravings, especially those illustrating classic books, including 241 wood-engravings that illustrate scenes from the Bible. These achieved great international success, and he is the best-known artist in this printmaking technique, 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.
In all he created some 10,000 illustrations, the most important of which were duplicated in electrotype shells that were printed on cylinder presses, allowing very large print runs as steel engravings, hypnotizing the widest public ever captured by a major illustrator, and being published simultaneously in many countries. The drawings given to the block-cutters were often sketch-like and free.
Dore was born in Strasbourg on 6 January 1832. By age 5 he was a prodigy artist, creating drawings that were mature beyond his years.
Seven years later, he began carving in stone. At the age of 15, Dore began his career working as a caricaturist for the French paper Le journal pour rire. The illustrations of J. J. Grandville have been noted as an influence on his work. Wood-engr
He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravings, especially those illustrating classic books, including 241 wood-engravings that illustrate scenes from the Bible. These achieved great international success, and he is the best-known artist in this printmaking technique, 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.
In all he created some 10,000 illustrations, the most important of which were duplicated in electrotype shells that were printed on cylinder presses, allowing very large print runs as steel engravings, hypnotizing the widest public ever captured by a major illustrator, and being published simultaneously in many countries. The drawings given to the block-cutters were often sketch-like and free.
Dore was born in Strasbourg on 6 January 1832. By age 5 he was a prodigy artist, creating drawings that were mature beyond his years.
Seven years later, he began carving in stone. At the age of 15, Dore began his career working as a caricaturist for the French paper Le journal pour rire. The illustrations of J. J. Grandville have been noted as an influence on his work. Wood-engr
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