The Dark and Beautiful Art of Gustave Doré

        Hi everybody! This week I would love to discuss another one of my favorite artists, the incredible Gustave Doré! Doré (1832-1883) was born in France and grew up during a time in western history when printing technology was starting to make some real breakthroughs and illustrations became a far more common sight in books. As you could guess, Doré became an illustrator and made (in my humble opinion) some of the greatest pieces to ever grace the printed page.

        Over his life time he made both wood block prints as well as etchings for books such as "the Bible", "Paradise Lost", "the Divine Comedy", "Grimm's Fairy Tales", and "Orlando Furioso". His works have a dark and beautiful atmosphere to them, as well an incredible amount of detail in each line. Modern pen and ink illustrators got their start being inspired by his generation of artists. The method for making etching is to take a copper sheet, cover it in a thin, flat layer of wax, cut into it and then dip the sheet into acid. Then when its cleaned you can cover it in ink and print it. His style of art was by using lines to create forms. He would go from one side of the page with a line and then subsequent lines would be closer together to create shadows and further apart to be light. Here are some of my favorite pieces of his that show off his wonderful style!

        From "the King James Bible" here's "the Darkness at the Crucifixion", "the Vison of Death", and "the Tower of Babel":

        From "Paradise Lost" here is "Now to the Ascent of that Steep Savage Hill":

        From "the Divine Comedy" here is "Dante in the Dark Wood", "Lucifer, King of Hell", "Entrance to Heaven":

        Here is just a fraction of his amazing works. His style of illustration is very atmospheric and creates an intense mood to much of what he makes. He was fantastic at setting up an important scene and giving it the gravity that it deserves. Perhaps that's why he made art for "the Bible" and various epic poems. I will leave this post with a great piece I like called "Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before" from Edgar Allen Poe's poem "the Raven". Well thanks everyone for reading this, and until next time, stay weird!