Doré, Gustave

Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré (UK: DOR-ay, US: dor-AY; French: [ɡystav dɔʁe]; 6 January 1832 – 23 January 1883) was a French printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravings illustrating classic literature, especially those for the Vulgate Bible and Dante's Divine Comedy. These achieved great international success, and he became renowned for printmaking, 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. He created over 10,000 illustrations, the most important of which were copied using an electrotype process using cylinder presses, allowing very large print runs to be published simultaneously in many countries. Although Doré's work was popular with the general public during his life, it was met with mixed reviews from contemporary art critics. His work has been more widely celebrated in the centuries following his death. Among his admirers were writers H. P. Lovecraft and Théophile Gautier.