22. Gustave Doré
(1832-1883)
Children’s Ward in a London Hospital

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Doré, Children’s Ward in a London Hospital

Children’s Ward in a London Hospital

Pen and brown ink over pencil on thick wove paper, ca. 1872, 348 x 278 mm., ex collection: Mme. Daniel Dollfus (sale 1912, some drawings purchased by the Louvre). This is Doré’s preliminary, but complete, study for the wood-engraved plate in London, a Pilgrimage, published in 1872. Doré was a great and prolific artist whose primary medium was that of literary illustration. His illustrations for Don Quixote, Paradise Lost and The Divine Comedy are so well known as to define, for many generations, the actual physical appearance of the places and personages of those literary masterpieces. In 1869, Doré was commissioned, for a large sum of money, to spend three months a year in London and produce a set of images for a “portrait” of the city. The work was wildly successful, but drew the criticism that it appeared to concentrate on poverty -- precisely the element that has made its illustrations outlive their time and rise far above the pretty, touristy images that prevailed in Victorian England. The drawing is signed in ink and bears the artist’s dedication to Mme. Dollfus.