EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 17 © 2016 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

63 Gustave Doré The forefather of illustration, master engraver, caricaturist, painter, sculptor and a pioneer of comic strips, this artist did it all. Diego Cordoba recounts his life and work. Modern illustration would never have reached the heights it achieved in the 20th century were it not for an artist of the 19th century that wanted to be a painter but chose illustration as a bread-winning income instead. He not only brought book illustration to the fore, but his illustrated narratives, with his framing of small drawings within the page to express movement, were the closest a 19th century artist ever came to creating modern comic strips. He was an innovator, developing a new way of engraving by working on wood; he was also a sculptor and painter, but ultimately all these achievements were overshadowed by the power and reach of his illustrations. FACING PAGE: Les Saltimbanques (1874), oil on canvas, 224 x 184 cm. This stunning painting shows a family of street performers hit by a tragedy: their child suffered an injury during a tightrope walk and rests in the arms of his mother as the father dressed in his harlequin’s costume looks on in desolation. ABOVE: Gustave Doré with a Beard , photograph by Adrien Alban Tournachon (c. 1854). BOTTOM LEFT: The Ogre, engraving (1867) from ‘ Le Petit Poucet’ (‘Hop O’ My Thumb’), one of the illustrations from Perrault’s ‘Fairy Tales’. The ogre, deceived, is about to slaughter his daughters thinking he’s killing Hop O' Thumb and his brothers to prepare his feast. Doré later did another variation of this image in 1869. Bibliothèque Nationale de France