Gustave DORÉ
(Strasbourg 1832 - Paris 1883)
Loch Duich, Scotland
Watercolour. Laid down.
Signed and dated G. Doré / 7bre 1880 / Loch Duigg – Sky / Ecosse at the lower right.
222 x 305 mm. (8 3/4 x 12 in.)
Signed and dated G. Doré / 7bre 1880 / Loch Duigg – Sky / Ecosse at the lower right.
222 x 305 mm. (8 3/4 x 12 in.)
In April 1873 Gustave Doré visited Scotland, ostensibly to go salmon fishing with his close friend Col. Christopher Teesdale, an equerry to the Prince of Wales. However, the artist soon abandoned fishing in favour of sketching. On his return to Paris, he wrote of his trip to his friend, the English writer Amelia Edwards: ‘I took a good many notes and jottings in water colour – the first time I have tried that medium. I have employed it solely in obtaining qualities of intention or impression.’ It is from this year onwards that Doré began to work extensively in watercolours, and he first exhibited his work in this medium at the Exposition de L’Union Artistique in Paris in 1877. He also exhibited several works at the Société d’Aquarellistes Français in 1879, 1880 and 1882. Notwithstanding this, the artist seems to have regarded his watercolours mainly as personal, rather than public, works; as he is supposed to have said, ‘To me, watercolour is nothing more than writing with which one takes notes.’ Dore’s oeuvre as a watercolourist was certainly much admired in his day, and one contemporary biographer described these works as ‘the most perfect achievements of any water-colour painter since the Renaissance. In this branch of art Gustave Doré had few rivals, and may unhesitatingly claim unlimited praise. Critic and connoisseur may pick flaws here and there in Doré the illustrator, Doré the oil-painter, Doré the etcher, Doré the sculptor; but no one in justice can deny the ripe perfection of Doré the aquarellist.’
Doré became very fond of the landscapes of the Scottish Highlands and often depicted them in paintings and watercolours. As he wrote to Amelia Edwards in 1873, ‘Henceforth, when I paint landscapes, I believe that five out of every six will be reminiscences of the Highlands: of Aberdeenshire, Braemar, Balmoral, Ballater, &c. I hope to go back there again and again. I went with a party of friends, under the pretext of salmon fishing; but, unskilled as I am in that kind of sport (which is not easy!), I caught, as you may suppose, very few fish, and soon devoted myself exclusively to the catching of landscapes.’ Doré returned to Scotland the following year, and produced several oil paintings of Highland landscapes between 1874 and 1881; some of these are today in the collections of, among others, the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Caen, the Glasgow Museums, the Musée de Peinture et Sculpture in Grenoble, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the St. Louis Art Museum, the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain in Strasbourg and the Toledo Museum of Art. In an account of Doré’s first trip to Scotland in 1873, written ten years later in a letter to the artist’s friend and biographer Blanchard Jerrold, Col. Teesdale recalled that Doré ‘was enthusiastic about the wildness and beauty of the country...His book, from one end to the other, was filled in an incredibly short space of time; for as soon as we came home and had dined he would spend two or three hours in finishing the memoranda he had made during the day, with water-colours, ink, or anything that came under his hand…from these rapid sketches he subsequently produced some of his best and most finished work with wonderful fidelity.’
Loch Duich is a sea loch in the western coast of Scotland. As noted in a 19th century guidebook to this part of the Scottish Highlands, published several years before Doré visited the area, ‘The surrounding country, variously hilly and mountainous, emblossoms some fine scenery; while that along Loch Duich is eminently picturesque.’
A similar watercolour by Doré, a view of Loch Fyne drawn in 1874, appeared at auction in Paris in 2022, while a view of Loch Muick, dated April 1873, is in the collection of the Louvre.
Doré became very fond of the landscapes of the Scottish Highlands and often depicted them in paintings and watercolours. As he wrote to Amelia Edwards in 1873, ‘Henceforth, when I paint landscapes, I believe that five out of every six will be reminiscences of the Highlands: of Aberdeenshire, Braemar, Balmoral, Ballater, &c. I hope to go back there again and again. I went with a party of friends, under the pretext of salmon fishing; but, unskilled as I am in that kind of sport (which is not easy!), I caught, as you may suppose, very few fish, and soon devoted myself exclusively to the catching of landscapes.’ Doré returned to Scotland the following year, and produced several oil paintings of Highland landscapes between 1874 and 1881; some of these are today in the collections of, among others, the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Caen, the Glasgow Museums, the Musée de Peinture et Sculpture in Grenoble, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the St. Louis Art Museum, the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain in Strasbourg and the Toledo Museum of Art. In an account of Doré’s first trip to Scotland in 1873, written ten years later in a letter to the artist’s friend and biographer Blanchard Jerrold, Col. Teesdale recalled that Doré ‘was enthusiastic about the wildness and beauty of the country...His book, from one end to the other, was filled in an incredibly short space of time; for as soon as we came home and had dined he would spend two or three hours in finishing the memoranda he had made during the day, with water-colours, ink, or anything that came under his hand…from these rapid sketches he subsequently produced some of his best and most finished work with wonderful fidelity.’
Loch Duich is a sea loch in the western coast of Scotland. As noted in a 19th century guidebook to this part of the Scottish Highlands, published several years before Doré visited the area, ‘The surrounding country, variously hilly and mountainous, emblossoms some fine scenery; while that along Loch Duich is eminently picturesque.’
A similar watercolour by Doré, a view of Loch Fyne drawn in 1874, appeared at auction in Paris in 2022, while a view of Loch Muick, dated April 1873, is in the collection of the Louvre.
Arguably the most widely-known French artist of the 19th century, Gustave Doré was immensely prolific as a draughtsman, printmaker, watercolourist and illustrator. Born in Alsace, he was a precocious artist, and drew from a very early age. He produced his first lithograph at the age of eleven and his first album of lithographs, Les Travaux d’Hercule, appeared four years later. It was also at the age of fifteen that Doré settled in Paris, having gained employment as a cartoonist for the newly-founded Journal pour Rire, while at the same time continuing his studies at the Lycée Charlemagne. He made his debut at the Paris Salon of 1848, where he exhibited two drawings, and two years later showed his first painting. He also began producing albums of his lithographs. By the middle of the 1850s Doré was working extensively as an illustrator, producing highly inventive and original wood engravings to accompany editions of such novels as François Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel and Honoré de Balzacs Contes drolatiques, as well as his La Légende de juif errant, which appeared in 1856. His fame as an illustrator was well established by 1860, and later projects found him producing illustrations for editions of works by Dante, Cervantes, Perrault, La Fontaine, Chateaubriand, Milton and Tennyson, as well as the Bible. He also continued to produce illustrations for such magazines as the Journal amusant.
Despite his renown as a book illustrator, which brought him considerable wealth, Doré always wanted to be recognized as a painter. Although he was a regular exhibitor at the Salons, his paintings never achieved much critical success, at least in France. (He received an honourable mention for a battle scene in 1857, while in 1865 one of his paintings was purchased by the State.) In England, however, where he began to establish close ties in the 1860s, his work as a painter was much more highly regarded, and among the collectors of his work was Queen Victoria. Several of the artist’s large Biblical paintings were exhibited in London, mainly at the Doré Gallery on New Bond Street, which opened in 1868 and was devoted to his work. (The Doré Gallery continued to show the artist’s work to the paying public in London until 1892, long after his death.) In 1872 he published the illustrated London: A Pilgrimage, in collaboration with the journalist William Blanchard Jerrold, based on some 250 drawings made while exploring the sprawling city between 1869 and 1870. Doré served in the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Paris, and produced a number of works with patriotic themes. An accomplished watercolourist, Doré began working extensively in the medium from 1873, following a visit to Scotland, and exhibited several works at the Société d’Aquarellistes Français in 1879, 1880 and 1882. He was also active as a sculptor, most notably with a statue of the writer Alexandre Dumas, completed in 1881, but it is for his accomplishments as a book artist - with an oeuvre of nearly ten thousand illustrations - that he remains best known and most admired today.
Despite his renown as a book illustrator, which brought him considerable wealth, Doré always wanted to be recognized as a painter. Although he was a regular exhibitor at the Salons, his paintings never achieved much critical success, at least in France. (He received an honourable mention for a battle scene in 1857, while in 1865 one of his paintings was purchased by the State.) In England, however, where he began to establish close ties in the 1860s, his work as a painter was much more highly regarded, and among the collectors of his work was Queen Victoria. Several of the artist’s large Biblical paintings were exhibited in London, mainly at the Doré Gallery on New Bond Street, which opened in 1868 and was devoted to his work. (The Doré Gallery continued to show the artist’s work to the paying public in London until 1892, long after his death.) In 1872 he published the illustrated London: A Pilgrimage, in collaboration with the journalist William Blanchard Jerrold, based on some 250 drawings made while exploring the sprawling city between 1869 and 1870. Doré served in the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Paris, and produced a number of works with patriotic themes. An accomplished watercolourist, Doré began working extensively in the medium from 1873, following a visit to Scotland, and exhibited several works at the Société d’Aquarellistes Français in 1879, 1880 and 1882. He was also active as a sculptor, most notably with a statue of the writer Alexandre Dumas, completed in 1881, but it is for his accomplishments as a book artist - with an oeuvre of nearly ten thousand illustrations - that he remains best known and most admired today.
Provenance
The studio of the artist, Paris
Anonymous sale (‘Montagne: 29e vente’), Paris, Blanchet & Associés, 25 November 2020, lot 34
Private collection.
Anonymous sale (‘Montagne: 29e vente’), Paris, Blanchet & Associés, 25 November 2020, lot 34
Private collection.
