Gustave Doré
1832–1883 • Illustrator, painter, printmaker and visual storyteller.
The artist behind the images.
The most celebrated group of illustrations of all times is represented by the Bible's tables by Gustave Doré.
For nearly twenty five years he has been the most famous and remunerated French artist.
His fame surpassed by far that of all the illustrators in the entire world.
The Doré's Bible tables have established the canon of every representation of religious subjects.
Gustave Doré was the most popular illustrator of all time, both in terms of number of engravings (10,000+) and number of editions (4,000+). In the forty year period from 1860-1900 a new Doré illustrated edition was published every eight days! His 238 Bible engravings were by far the most popular set of illustrations ever done, with nearly 1,000 editions. Yet Doré was much more than just an illustrator. He did over 400 oil paintings. Millions of people came to see a gallery of his paintings. He also did several hundred watercolor landscapes and dozens of works of sculpture. He did the monument to Alexandre Dumas that sits in Paris today.
Why then have so many people never heard of Gustave Doré?
They may not be familiar with his name, but his engravings are everywhere, like on the cover of Time Magazine. Doré is also one of the best kept secrets in Hollywood. His engravings were used in many classic films like King Kong, Great Expectations and The Ten Commandments, as well as many recent films like Amistad, Seven & What Dreams may Come. Doré's name may fade in and out of pop culture usage, but his art has had an enduring influence to generations of romantics and realists alike.
Gustave Doré was born in Strasbourg, France, in January 1832. He was the ultimate child prodigy. His earliest dated drawings were from the age of five. The stories of his early artistic prowess are legendary. By the age of 12 he was carving his own lithographic stones, making sets of engravings with stories to go with them.
The great French illustrator J. J. Grandville met Gustave and predicted great artistic success. But no one could have dreamed just how quickly that success would come.
“Pure genius, born in the lad.”
“Born in Strasbourg (France) in 1832, within sight of the great cathedral, Doré was impressed with art in his baby days.
He made pictures, and clever ones, when 7 and 8 years old.
...For pure genius, born in the lad, Doré’s artistic instinct is just as remarkable as was Mozart's.
...It would be impossible to give in detail all the books Doré illustrated.
...From Balzac's Contes Drolatiques to the idyls of Tennyson, subjects as far apart as the poles, every page bears the impress of Doré's genius, for a genius in the perfect acceptation of the word was what this artist possessed.
...Alexandre Dumas the Younger:
What a grandiose, dramatic, troubled appeal from earth to heaven of light and shadows, of chaos, of the fantastic, the invisible, the visionary! What a world of saints, martyrs, apostles, archangels, heroes, giants... spectres of celestial and monstrous types...
The New York Times, Nov. 8, 1885
From the review of: Life and Reminiscences of Gustave Dore', by Blanche Roosevelt.
The Doré Bible
The original large-folio Bible edition was published by Cassell, Petter and Galpin in 1866 and established the celebrated Doré Bible image cycle. The present full-color digital edition contains 241 illustrations.
The present website reinterprets that legacy as a digital collection and gateway to the current full-color editions.