Gustave Doré Biography | Oil Painting Reproductions

Gustave Doré by age five, was a prodigy troublemaker, playing pranks that were mature beyond his years. Seven years later, he began carving in cement. At the age of fifteen Doré began his career working as a caricaturist for the French paper Le Journal Pour Rire, and subsequently went on to win commissions to depict scenes from books by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton, and Dante.

In 1853, Gustave Doré was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron. This commission was followed by more work for British publishers, including a new illustrated English Bible.

In the 1860s he illustrated a French edition of Cervantes's Don Quixote, and his depictions of the knight and his squire, Sancho Panza, have become so famous to the point that they have influenced later readers, artists, and stage and film directors ideas of the physical "look" of these two famous characters. Gustave Doré also illustrated an oversized edition of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", an endeavor that earned him a huge sum of 30,000 Francs in 1883.

Gustave Doré's illustrations for the English Bible published in 1866 were a great success, and in 1867 Doré had a noteworthy show of his work in London. This exhibition led to the establishment of the Doré Gallery on Bond Street, London. Doré signed a five-year contract with the publisher's Grant & Co that included him remaining in London for three months per year, and he received the vast sum of £10,000 (equal to US$1,000,000 today) a year for the venture.

A is a self-taught artist, he is not easily classified, we might consider him as a late Romantic, but even that is not accurate of his painting or illustration style. Doré was celebrated for his paintings in his day and his paintings remain world-renowned, besides his oil painting, he was also a printmaker, illustrator, and sculptor. Gustave Doré never married and, following the passing of his father in 1849, he kept on living with and supporting his mother until he died in Paris

Art Movement: Romanticism, Victorian Classicism.
He Traveled To England.
Artist's Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.