DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36582#0029
THE DORE GALLERY.
HE art of illustrating books has been so largely developed within
the present century, that the greater part of its history belongs to our
own era. It is true that the mediaeval monks bestowed a good deal
of labour, taste, skill, and invention on the illumination of their missals :
but this would be more correctly described as the adornment than the
illustration of books; at any rate, it had only a very limited application,
and, like authorship itself, hardly reached the mass of the people at all. The
invention of block-printing—that great precursor of the discovery of movable
types—extended the sphere of ornamental literature, so that some approach was made to the
modern system of book-illustration; and with the age of Diirer and Holbein, real art came
into requisition in connection with the works of various writers. Still, there was yet only a
small public for such productions, and in the seventeenth century wood-engraving sank
into barbarism. At the same time, copper-plate engraving was introduced into works of
a costly description, and this was the kind of illustration which, with a few cheap and
worthless exceptions, prevailed throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. With
the revival of the art of wood-engraving by Bewick, nearly a hundred years ago, the
illustration of books entered on a new career, and, both here and on the Continent,
a race of artists arose, whose greatest triumphs were achieved in connection with the
printing-press.
Certainly, the most remarkable book-illustrator of our own or any other time—at
once for the multiplicity of his works and the splendour of his genius—is the extra-
ordinary man whose pencil has created the many forms of grandeur, power, and beauty
to be found in this volume. Gustave Dor£ has originated a new style in art, developed
a new taste in the public, and discovered capabilities in book-illustration which were not
previously suspected. He has his faults, like other men ; but his genius is so
predominant as almost to blind us to its drawbacks. He takes people by storm,
and scarcely allows time for their judgment to interfere with their admiration. The
marvellous number of his designs—the immense extent of literature which he has illumi-
nated by the conceptions of his vast and wild imagination—the poetic beauty of some of
his illustrations, the elfin humour of others, and the lurid glare and gloom of not a few—
HE art of illustrating books has been so largely developed within
the present century, that the greater part of its history belongs to our
own era. It is true that the mediaeval monks bestowed a good deal
of labour, taste, skill, and invention on the illumination of their missals :
but this would be more correctly described as the adornment than the
illustration of books; at any rate, it had only a very limited application,
and, like authorship itself, hardly reached the mass of the people at all. The
invention of block-printing—that great precursor of the discovery of movable
types—extended the sphere of ornamental literature, so that some approach was made to the
modern system of book-illustration; and with the age of Diirer and Holbein, real art came
into requisition in connection with the works of various writers. Still, there was yet only a
small public for such productions, and in the seventeenth century wood-engraving sank
into barbarism. At the same time, copper-plate engraving was introduced into works of
a costly description, and this was the kind of illustration which, with a few cheap and
worthless exceptions, prevailed throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. With
the revival of the art of wood-engraving by Bewick, nearly a hundred years ago, the
illustration of books entered on a new career, and, both here and on the Continent,
a race of artists arose, whose greatest triumphs were achieved in connection with the
printing-press.
Certainly, the most remarkable book-illustrator of our own or any other time—at
once for the multiplicity of his works and the splendour of his genius—is the extra-
ordinary man whose pencil has created the many forms of grandeur, power, and beauty
to be found in this volume. Gustave Dor£ has originated a new style in art, developed
a new taste in the public, and discovered capabilities in book-illustration which were not
previously suspected. He has his faults, like other men ; but his genius is so
predominant as almost to blind us to its drawbacks. He takes people by storm,
and scarcely allows time for their judgment to interfere with their admiration. The
marvellous number of his designs—the immense extent of literature which he has illumi-
nated by the conceptions of his vast and wild imagination—the poetic beauty of some of
his illustrations, the elfin humour of others, and the lurid glare and gloom of not a few—