![]() A plot summary of the entire poem is also included. Appropriate quotes from the text of Paradise Lost are printed alongside each illustration. Indeed, Doré's grand conception seems to realize perfectly Milton's own poetic version. The dreamlike, otherworldly quality Doré often brought to his work seems especially appropriate for Paradise Lost with its lofty spirit and epic events. Among the events depicted: the expulsion of Satan from heaven, Adam and Eve in Paradise, the nine-day fall of Lucifer's legions to Hell, the Creation, the temptation of Eve, the Flood, Moses holding up the Ten Commandments, and the fearsome creatures Milton referred to as "Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire." This volume presents superb reproductions of all 50 plates drawn by Doré and engraved in his studios for the original edition of Paradise Lost.Īrtists and art lovers will find in these pages supreme examples of the illustrator's art. His wood-engraved illustrations for John Milton's monumental epic poem Paradise Lost, recounting mankind's fall from the grace of God through the work of Satan, were among his finest and most dramatic works. On top of all this, he would also branch out into other mediums in order to keep his creativity as refreshed as possible.Gustave Doré's Romantic style of illustration, supremely imaginative and richly detailed, was ideally suited to literary subjects. His assistants became more and more involved as his workload expanded, with even some drawings being completed by his assistants but then signed by the master himself. He had more offers of work than he could reasonably deliver, even with all of his hired help, and so would have to turn some commissions down. ![]() Publishers sought to create the finest examples possible by bringing in big names from the art world and at that time, Doré was considered the best book illustrator around. It was an exciting time within the UK and his native France, with levels of literacy on the increase and many more people now able to buy and read books. Seven years later, he began carving in stone. By age 5 he was a prodigy artist, creating drawings that were mature beyond his years. Doré was born in Strasbourg on 6 January 1832. The artist worked tirelessly throughout the 1860s to produce a huge number of illustrations and also to oversee their transition into completed publications. Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré was a French artist, printmaker, illustrator, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor who worked primarily with wood engraving. One can also find examples in his career of where he might tackle the same content in different mediums, such as his painting and illustration of Little Red Riding Hood. He would attempt to achieve similar levels of fame in other mediums but could never quite manage it, eventually having to settle for being classed as a specialist illustrator with some talents in other disciplines. This artist's approach was heavily connected to the Romanticist movement and that seemed to suit topics such as this. Many focused on popular literature from the past two centuries, but there were also older sources such as Dante's Divine Comedy and even The Bible. Doré had a strong relationship with a number of British and French publishers across the 1860s and would regularly be asked to provide illustrations for projects such as this. This design would have been turned into an engraving by one of the artist's assistants before then being printed into the book itself at around the same time. This may sound like a large project, but in other series, Gustave Doré would create several hundreds of drawings and they could often feature more detail than is found within the likes of Plate no 26, Book VI, line 406, '.Now Night her Course began.' The French illustrator's work on this particular plate was one of fifty items that he contributed for the edition that appeared two hundred years later and is marked as plate number 26, meaning it would likely have appeared roughly around the half way point of the book. The content refers to the Fall of Man and is broadly based around that religious theme. The poem itself, Paradise Lost, was completed by the poet around two centuries earlier and ran into ten books. ![]() To left in the background we then see a bright light which brings some lighter tones to the piece. The character is darkened to the same degree as the environment that surrounds it, and there is then a taller mountain in the distance. The composition features a winged figure in the foreground, balancing on some rocky cliffs. is the title of this illustration and is a direct quote from the poem itself.
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