DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36582#0019
MEMOIR OF GUSTAVE DORE.
F the life of Gustave Dore there is not much to relate. The
great French artist is too young a man to have accumulated
about him those incrustations of 'anecdote and reminiscence,
which grow round the name and fame of men whose working
life dates backward half a century or so. His career resolves
itself, for the most part, into a list of art-productions of singular
variety and extraordinary power; and in recording these we give
the liveliest idea possible as yet of the brilliant genius now so
popular both in Europe and America.
Paul Gustave Dore (for such are his full names) was born on the 6th of
January, 1832, at Strasburg. His father was an engineer, and, judging by his
name, seems to have been of pure French stock ; but Strasburg is to a great
extent a German town, and indeed the whole of Alsace, to which it belongs, has
more of the Teutonic than the Gallic element. This eastern province was ceded
to France by Austria at various periods of the seventeenth century. Its German
character is evinced in the names of its towns, in the patronymics of many of its
inhabitants, and in the dialect spoken by the humbler orders. At Strasburg
the Protestants are numerous, and statues of German celebrities, and of French
celebrities with German names, are found in the churches, squares, and public
buildings. Whether the touch of German wildness in the genius of Dore is to
be attributed to his birthplace, might be a curious subject for discussion ;
but, as remarked elsewhere, his characteristics are mainly French.
That which probably exercised a much greater influence on the youthful mind
of Dore was the picturesque scenery by which he was surrounded in his early days.
Strasburg itself is (or at least was, before the late bombardment) a quaint old
town, with lofty stone houses, high-pitched roofs, dormer windows surmounting
each other in tiers, a fine Gothic cathedral, ancient public buildings, and vast
F the life of Gustave Dore there is not much to relate. The
great French artist is too young a man to have accumulated
about him those incrustations of 'anecdote and reminiscence,
which grow round the name and fame of men whose working
life dates backward half a century or so. His career resolves
itself, for the most part, into a list of art-productions of singular
variety and extraordinary power; and in recording these we give
the liveliest idea possible as yet of the brilliant genius now so
popular both in Europe and America.
Paul Gustave Dore (for such are his full names) was born on the 6th of
January, 1832, at Strasburg. His father was an engineer, and, judging by his
name, seems to have been of pure French stock ; but Strasburg is to a great
extent a German town, and indeed the whole of Alsace, to which it belongs, has
more of the Teutonic than the Gallic element. This eastern province was ceded
to France by Austria at various periods of the seventeenth century. Its German
character is evinced in the names of its towns, in the patronymics of many of its
inhabitants, and in the dialect spoken by the humbler orders. At Strasburg
the Protestants are numerous, and statues of German celebrities, and of French
celebrities with German names, are found in the churches, squares, and public
buildings. Whether the touch of German wildness in the genius of Dore is to
be attributed to his birthplace, might be a curious subject for discussion ;
but, as remarked elsewhere, his characteristics are mainly French.
That which probably exercised a much greater influence on the youthful mind
of Dore was the picturesque scenery by which he was surrounded in his early days.
Strasburg itself is (or at least was, before the late bombardment) a quaint old
town, with lofty stone houses, high-pitched roofs, dormer windows surmounting
each other in tiers, a fine Gothic cathedral, ancient public buildings, and vast