DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36582#0024
XX
MEMOIR OF GUSTAVE DO RE.
Messrs. Cassell, Petter, and Galpin. For the La Fontaine (which was
produced in France in 1867, and in England in 1868) M. Dore made very
careful studies of animal life. In 1866 we had the “Baron Munchausen”
and the “ Croquemitaine,” which had previously appeared in Paris in 1862 and
1863; and during the last ten years M. Dore has illustrated a great many
other works—such as Shakespeare’s “Tempest” (i860), the Nursery Tales of
Perrault, and “Captain Castagnette” (1862)—which have exhibited his brilliant
fancy in a hundred prismatic lights. He has also contributed several exquisite
plates to the poems of Tennyson and of Thomas Hood, and has illustrated various
works by Malte-Brun, and a great many, histories, romances, and works of
light literature.
It is said that he has illustrated a book of travels in every country in the
world. This is probably an exaggeration; but he has certainly done much
in this way. He has likewise, of late years, taken again to oil-painting, and
the exhibition in New Bond Street has given our countrymen an opportunity
of estimating this great artist’s skill in the manipulation of colours. Some of
the pictures are undoubtedly very fine; but that which, from its subject, and the
brilliance of its pigments, attracts most attention, is by no means the best. “ The
Triumph of Christianity over Paganism,” though striking, is somewhat tawdry
and theatrical. It is not without M. Dore’s fertility of invention and cleverness
of execution ; but it is wanting in sublimity, and even in dignity. A confused
rout of figures tumbles from top to bottom of the picture, and the effect is
almost pantomimic in its glitter of vestments and extravagance of action. Of
a far higher character is the “ Paolo and Francesca,” corresponding, save in a
few variations, with one of the illustrations to the “ Inferno,” included in the
present volume (Plate CCXLIII.). The figure of Francesca is transcendently
beautiful and extremely pathetic. With a face of classic loveliness (classic
after the Italian model, which was softer and more womanly than the
Greek), and with an expression of pain, of horror, of weariness, of hopeless
suffering, yet of overmastering affection and faithfulness, she floats upon the
lurid storm beneath the eyes of her unhappy lover. The wound upon the
bosom has grown livid; the arms are passionately stretched up; while
above, bending downwards, hangs the dumb, despairing face of Paolo. Some
way below, in the background, the figures of Dante and Virgil are seen dimly
through the hot red air. The conception is worthy of Dante’s terrible story,
and the colouring is pure and masterly. Not, perhaps, equal to this, yet still
MEMOIR OF GUSTAVE DO RE.
Messrs. Cassell, Petter, and Galpin. For the La Fontaine (which was
produced in France in 1867, and in England in 1868) M. Dore made very
careful studies of animal life. In 1866 we had the “Baron Munchausen”
and the “ Croquemitaine,” which had previously appeared in Paris in 1862 and
1863; and during the last ten years M. Dore has illustrated a great many
other works—such as Shakespeare’s “Tempest” (i860), the Nursery Tales of
Perrault, and “Captain Castagnette” (1862)—which have exhibited his brilliant
fancy in a hundred prismatic lights. He has also contributed several exquisite
plates to the poems of Tennyson and of Thomas Hood, and has illustrated various
works by Malte-Brun, and a great many, histories, romances, and works of
light literature.
It is said that he has illustrated a book of travels in every country in the
world. This is probably an exaggeration; but he has certainly done much
in this way. He has likewise, of late years, taken again to oil-painting, and
the exhibition in New Bond Street has given our countrymen an opportunity
of estimating this great artist’s skill in the manipulation of colours. Some of
the pictures are undoubtedly very fine; but that which, from its subject, and the
brilliance of its pigments, attracts most attention, is by no means the best. “ The
Triumph of Christianity over Paganism,” though striking, is somewhat tawdry
and theatrical. It is not without M. Dore’s fertility of invention and cleverness
of execution ; but it is wanting in sublimity, and even in dignity. A confused
rout of figures tumbles from top to bottom of the picture, and the effect is
almost pantomimic in its glitter of vestments and extravagance of action. Of
a far higher character is the “ Paolo and Francesca,” corresponding, save in a
few variations, with one of the illustrations to the “ Inferno,” included in the
present volume (Plate CCXLIII.). The figure of Francesca is transcendently
beautiful and extremely pathetic. With a face of classic loveliness (classic
after the Italian model, which was softer and more womanly than the
Greek), and with an expression of pain, of horror, of weariness, of hopeless
suffering, yet of overmastering affection and faithfulness, she floats upon the
lurid storm beneath the eyes of her unhappy lover. The wound upon the
bosom has grown livid; the arms are passionately stretched up; while
above, bending downwards, hangs the dumb, despairing face of Paolo. Some
way below, in the background, the figures of Dante and Virgil are seen dimly
through the hot red air. The conception is worthy of Dante’s terrible story,
and the colouring is pure and masterly. Not, perhaps, equal to this, yet still