Gustave Doré (Born 1875) was born a Painter. No man is a prophet in his own country. Doré was very successful as an illustrator but was never appreciated in his own country, and this must have often reflected on this ancient maxim. The artist thought of himself as being above all as a painter, but many never acknowledged him as such, especially in France - and Doré is known to have suffered from it. He once said that he had been told for a long time that painting would make him despair of life. Even as late as 1954, Haug Hans, curator at the Musée de Strasbourg, wrote that "Doré remained a failed painter. This was during a retrospective featuring the artist. It not until 1980 that the museums in France began to take a real interest in Doré’s painted works, specifically, thanks to the acquisition of his several big canvases.
In Brou, the retrospective organized at a certain museum was mainly dedicated to this aspect of the artist. Given the apparent restrictions of budget and space, the hugest paintings were not put on view because some are large measuring up to 7 meters. Dore was primarily a self-taught artist, and so he’s not easily classified; this is a very a bad sign for posterity. That notwithstanding, with a bit of objectivity, many historians and art students might consider him as a late Romantic, just like some of his peers, such as Charles Meyron and François Chifflart. Doré was a generous artist, in love with Byron, Victor Hugo and Dante.
