Gustave Doré

“ As yet no scheme or plan or method has been devised that shows results, and the men of imagination seem to be those who have succeeded in spite of school. In Gustave Dore we have the curious spectacle of Nature keeping bright and fresh in the man all those strange conceptions of the child, and multiplying them by a man's strength.
The wild imaginings of Gustave only served his father and mother with food for laughter; and his erratic absurdities in making pictures supplied the neighbors' fun.
But actions that are funny in a child become disturbing in a man ”

“ Turning from Hogarth to a modern artist, in spite of his faults of Gustave Doré. most marvellous genius and inventive faculty, I frequently find critics of approved knowledge and sagacity describing the late Gustave Doré as a caricaturist. ”

“ When a comic album containing sixty-one pictures by Cham is sold in Paris for about twelve cents of our currency, the artist can not bestow much time or pains upon his work. The comic almanac quoted above, containing one hundred and eighty-three pages and seventy pictures, costs the retail purchaser ten cents.
Gustave Doré, now so renowned, came from Strasburg to Paris in 1845, a boy of thirteen, and made his first essays in art, three years after, as a caricaturist in the Journal pour Rire. ”

“ For there are a quiet humour and a delicate fancy running through the legend, amid all the exciting accounts of loves and wars, tourneys and battles, accidents and adventures, which do not lose interest because they are illustrated by the powerful pencil of Gustave Doré. ”

“ The words, I was told, were by Castellani of Rome. The other song was brilliant, strong, thrilling. It was an outburst of love, where a Tyrolese jodel was interpolated and sung by that brilliant imaginative genius Gustave Doré. Here one met with choice conversation, fruitful, instructive, amiable, and vivacious, from which one came forth with the mind more elevated and a greater warmth at heart; but....
To that exhibition I sent a plaster cast of my bas-relief representing the "Triumph of the Cross," the marble group of the "Pietà," and the model for the base of the Egyptian Vase. ”

“ MYTHS OF THE RHINE Illustrated by Gustave Doré
ILLUSTRATIONS Father Rhine. .003 The impassive historian . .004 Vast forests as old as the world .005 The first pioneers. .007 The Celts were a people from India. .009 What happy people scholars are. .010 A horrible custom .019 Dead man’s trees. .022 The Druids now appear for the first time in Germany .023 The other chieftains were generally polygamists .031 Courts of justice were always held under an elm tree. ”

“ There's always a retreat," she said, nodding.
His way of taking her, unexpected and positive, made her forget, at times, the combat intended, in the delight of self-analyzation.
"Your eyes are extraordinary," he said, meeting her glance critically. "They're not eyes; they're blue clouds entangled in your eyelashes."
But even in this there was no personal enthusiasm. He spoke enthusiastically, but as an observer, calculating and foreseeing developments. This compliment infuriated Doré. She was not accustomed to having men meet her full glance with nothing but criticism. ”

“ He reddened, pleased as a boy. "Want you to hear good music," he said in self-excusation. "Shan't be here always; you'll have to take a friend."
"Oh, but I want to go with you!" said Doré, genuinely moved.
"When I'm here—can't tell," he said, in the seventh heaven of happiness. "But I want you to go regularly; besides, my car is to call for you." [Pg 91]
"You are so kind," said Doré, looking at him solemnly, and forgetting for the moment all thought of calculation. "Really, I don't think there is another man in the world so kind!" ”

“ There is never the slightest attempt to realize carnage—only to convey, by the caricaturist's exaggeration, an idea of colossally impossible bloodthirstiness. One may not enjoy this kind of fun, but to take it seriously, as the emanation of a gloomy and diabolic genius, is absurd.
The same test is equally destructive of much of the praise Doré has received. He is constantly spoken of, even by severe critics of his painting, as a great illustrator who identified himself with the minds of one great writer after another. But Doré identified himself with no one; he was always Doré. ”

“ Doré said hastily. "My friend, Judge Massingale."
Snyder gave him her hand abruptly, with a quick antagonistic movement, watching his embarrassed face keenly.
"Just came up to get my coat," said Doré glibly. "Going out for dinner!"
They left hurriedly, ill at ease. On the second stairway, in the dark, she stopped him, and approaching her lips so close to his ear that they almost brushed it, said:
"I am not acting; I mean everything. It is to be the great thing in my life!" ”

“ Nothing can be easier; the hand formula is ready. The stock in trade of the professional illustrator and caricaturist is (p. 301) made up of a thousand such formulæ—methods of expression that convey the idea readily enough to the spectator, but have little relation to fact. So it is that Doré never learned, in the true sense, to draw. He had made for himself a sort of artistic shorthand, which enabled him to convey his superabundant ideas quickly and certainly to his public, but his drawing is what is called mannered in the extreme. ”

“ When the family man got up to go, say! you should see her bounce him out of the door and leap to the telephone, crying:
"'Make that a veal chop and mashed!'"
"Too late?" said Doré, laughing.
"Well, we lost as far as the first entrée; but, as Del said, the next time such a thing occurs, there'll be a wise waiter on the other end of the line! Where's Snyder?"
"They opened in Atlantic City last week; expect to return Monday."
"They say she's got a big hit! Glad of it!"
"So what's-his-name—your cartoonist—doesn't approve?" said Doré, smiling.
"He's a perfect pest. ”

“ In an evil hour for his peace of mind and his fame, Doré decided to leave illustration and become a historic painter. He evidently regarded genius as a Pandora's gift, an all-embracing finality, an endowment that could neither be worsened nor bettered, being complete in itself. ”

“ Although dazzling is the record from first to last, and despite the millions of francs earned during those two decades, the artist's ambition was never satisfied. We are always conscious of bitterness and disillusion. As an illustrator, no longer of cheap comic papers but of literary masterpieces brought out in costly fashion, Doré reached the first rank at twenty, his Rabelais setting the seal on his renown. ”

“ As a painter he has grandeur of conception and a bold expressive style. Amongst his chief works are: Christ leaving the Prætorium, Paolo and Francesca di Rimini, The Flight into Egypt, and Mont Blanc. In later years Doré also won fame as a sculptor. [74]
Dore ́ma, a genus of plants, nat. ord. Umbelliferæ. D. ammoniăcum, a Persian species, yields the ammoniacum of commerce, a milky juice that exudes from punctures on the stem and dries in little 'tears'. ”

“ Is it any wonder that facile success and excessive laudation should turn the stripling's head? Professionally, if not artistically speaking, Doré passed straight from child to man; in one sense of the word he had no boyhood, the term tyro remained inapplicable. This undersized, fragile lad, looking years younger than he really was, soon found himself on what must have appeared a pinnacle of fame and fortune.
Shortly after his agreement with Philipon, his father died, and Mme. Doré with her family removed to Paris, settling in a picturesque and historic hôtel of the Rue St. ”

“ Dore's nature was exuberant and buoyant, and he was youthful in appearance. He had a passion for music, possessed rare skill as a violinist, and it is assumed that, had he failed to succeed with his pencil, he could have won a brilliant reputation as a musician.
He was a bachelor, and lived a quiet, retired life with his mother—married, as he expressed it, to her and his art. His death occurred on January 23, 1883.
JESUS AND THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY.
Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. ”

“ But the courtly marquis also stepped back.
"It is your right," he said; "a guest like yourself should take precedence of friends; but pray appreciate the sacrifice I make to you."
"I do appreciate it fully," replied D'Alvimar, as Lauriane placed her little hand lightly on his arm; "and of all your kindnesses to me, I value this most."
"I am rejoiced to see," replied Bois-Doré, walking at Madame de Beuvre's left hand, "that you understand French gallantry as did his late majesty, our Henri, of blessed memory." ”

“ PICTURES OF LIFE IN THE COUNTRY
LIFE IN THE PROVINCES
LIFE IN A LITTLE PROVINCIAL TOWN
DAY SCHOOLS AND BOARDERS
NEW YEAR'S DAY
AT THE EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS
PEOPLE WHO "GIVE THEMSELVES AIRS IN SOCIETY" ”

“ Monsieur d'Alvimar and Lucilio had been invited by the marquis to be present.
"See," continued Bois-Doré, with ingenuous pride in his own penetration, putting aside the child's coarse white shirt, "his face is sun-burned, but no more than our peasants are in harvest-time; his neck is as white as snow, and he has feet and hands so small that serf or villein never could show the like. Come, my little imp, be not ashamed; and, as I am told that you understand French, answer our questions. What is your name?"
"Mario," the child replied without hesitation. ”

“ M. Doré's works are well known in this country, where they have been exhibited both as contributions to exhibitions of pictures by various artists, and also a number of his oil pictures forming a gallery by themselves.
M. Doré has turned his great powers to drawings on the wood; and, as an illustrator of books of imagination by the great authors, is almost unrivalled in popularity. ”

“ If I did wrong, punish me; but don't blame monsieur le comte; for, by the name of—, he's a fine little—, who pounded those—Germans like a—, and who will soon be a—, like you, master!"
"Enough, enough flattery, my good fellow," rejoined Bois-Doré, pressing the coachman's hand. "If you must teach your young master to disobey, at all events do not teach him to swear like a heathen."
"Did I disobey you, father?" said Mario; "you forbade me to attack the gypsies, but you didn't say anything about the reitres." ”

“ Later he tried sculpture also, and his last work was a monument to Alexandre Dumas, which he made at his own expense, and presented to the city of Paris. He died in the beginning of the year 1883, worn out with excessive production—a great name, but an unsatisfied man.
Mr. Jerrold has divided his book into two parts, dealing first with Doré the illustrator, and then with Doré the painter and sculptor. It is an eminently natural arrangement, and, in our effort to arrive at Doré's true position in art, we cannot do better than to follow it. ”

“ Half the secret of Doré's power as an illustrator was his exaggerated perception of this fact,—his comprehension of the artistic witchcraft of suggestion. And since the perception of details depends vastly upon the quality of eyesight, a landscape necessarily suggests less to the keen-sighted man than to the myope. The keener the view, the less depth in the impression produced. There is no possibility of mysterious attraction in wooded deeps or mountain recesses for the eye that, like the eye of the hawk, pierces shadow and can note the separate quiver of each leaf. ”

“ Shall we force the Pas de Suse to-morrow?"
"Yes, if you are in a state of grace," she replied disdainfully; "but as there is not a man among you who is not covered with mortal sins as with blotches of leprosy, I am sorely afraid for your soft white skins!"
"Stay," said someone, "we have here a chaste and gentle stripling, an angel from heaven, Mario de Bois-Doré! Let him begin the test and question the soothsayer."
"Mario de Bois-Doré?" cried Pilar, her sparkling eyes becoming dull and lifeless. "He is here, you say? where? where? Show him to me!" ”

“ We stand on no ceremony with him, and we should offend him by delaying our repast to await his coming."
"Should I not," said D'Alvimar, when he had been seated at the upper end of the table, "go and present my respects to Monsieur de Bois-Doré in his apartments, before taking my place at the table?"
"No," laughed Lauriane, "you would vex him terribly by surprising him at his toilet. Do not ask us why; you will understand for yourself as soon as you see him." ”

“ LIKEWISE DON GREGORIO’S RELEASE, AND OTHER EVENTS CHAPTER LXVI WHICH TREATS OF WHAT HE WHO READS WILL SEE, OR WHAT HE WHO HAS IT READ TO HIM WILL HEAR CHAPTER LXVII OF THE RESOLUTION DON QUIXOTE FORMED TO TURN SHEPHERD AND TAKE TO A LIFE IN THE FIELDS WHILE THE YEAR FOR WHICH HE HAD GIVEN HIS WORD WAS RUNNING ITS COURSE ”

“ As soon as he arrived there, paying no heed to the new arrivals who were crowding through the door, he glided to Bois-Doré's side, who was cooking for dear life with Madame Pignoux, saying to himself that the sooner the enemy was at table, the sooner there might be some opportunity to escape.
"Ah! here you are, my child," said the marquis in an undertone; "have they maltreated you?"
"No, no," said Mario, "the captain and I are on the best of terms. Let me help you, father. We can talk while they are not thinking about us." ”

“ What he might have done as a painter had he studied at any early age under good masters must be left to conjecture, although his paintings carry with them a clear confession that naturally he did not possess a good eye for color. He was always impatient of criticism which made him feel that there was any lack of technique in his works. "He has it all in him, but lacks 'school,'" was the verdict of the critics. Undoubtedly, wishing to do all that man has done, Doré would have liked to focus his powers on marvels of refinement and exactness, like Meissonier's ”