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| The Ancient Mariner and the Wedding Guest |
My current topic, as you’ll realize from the last post, is
graphic designers, illustrators and other visually creative types. I began with
Escher last month; however, another classic illustrator who is right up there
in my universal top ten is Gustav Doré.
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| The Albatross |
Doré was born in 1832 in Strasbourg and, with very little training at
all, went on to become one of the most outstanding illustrators of the age. The
fact that his work echoes down through the years and is still found in
canonical works alongside the literary texts they originally complemented,
attests to the exquisite and evocative power it retains for its beholders.
I recall reading The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner as a small child and gazing for hours – hours! – in awe at
the expressions Doré bestowed to Coleridge’s characters: the
wedding guest’s shocked face, the sailors’ terrified countenances, the
nightmare-woman Life-In-Death madly throwing dice.
The majestic posture of the
albatross and the lonely lost galleon gliding aimlessly in the dark can be
summoned to my mind in thorough detail even today, due to the power of Doré.
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| Christ |
Doré’s main media were wood engravings and illustrations, but he was also
a sculptor and painter, in other words a talented multi-disciplinary artist. He
became rich during his lifetime, being commissioned to create images for such
works as The Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, Inferno and “The Raven,” as well as the bible and famous folks
tales.
Gustav Doré was highly sought after and extremely
successful in many areas, but one of his deepest wishes, which was to find “the
love of a good woman” and marriage, was never fulfilled. He lived with his
mother his whole life and died after a short illness at the age of 51.
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| Little Red Riding Hood |
The National Gallery of Canada is currently hosting a 3-month
retrospective on Doré, with many works on loan, and an article about
this was published in The Globe and Mail on June 12.
Check out the link for
James Adams’ article:
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| Gustav Doré |
