Description: New edition of the excellent introduction to Gustave Doré's paintings, engravings and illustrations of the world's greatest literature, from The Bible to The Divine Comedy.
An artist who worked across many media, the multi-skilled Gustave Doré remains unequalled as a supremely talented illustrator, whose detailed and imaginative engravings for major works of literature - from Cervantes's Don Quixote to Dante's Divine Comedy, and even the Bible - have hugely influenced the way we see many cultural and literary characters and still inspire today (David Beckham has a tattoo on his chest of Doré's The Agony in the Garden). This sumptuous new introduction to the artist focuses on these illustrations, first introducing you to his life, work and the rich seam of illustration history that he continued and ignited, from Blake and Fuseli to today's newspaper comics, before presenting a carefully curated thematic selection of his finest and most important engravings. From his vision of Jacob Wrestling with the Angel to Crossing the River Styx, the work of this most prodigious and much borrowed-from artist is represented in glorious full-page reproductions.Brief description: Dan Malan has written dozens of Doré books, articles, and reference work contributions, and owns the world's largest private Doré collection: books, periodicals, prints and Doreana, including over 800 reference volumes. He has loaned hundreds of items to recent Doré exhibitions, was guest speaker at the 2014 Doré exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada and assisted the National Library of Russia on Doré research for a book which shows colour photos of rare Russian Doré editions.