During the second half of the 19th century, Gustave Doré (1832-1883) was one of the world's most famous artists. He was, and still is, best known as an illustrator of such classic works as Dante's Inferno, Cervantes' Don Quixote, Perrault's Fairy Tales, and, most famously, the great "Doré Bible." Not content with this success, Doré also sought, but unfortunately never achieved, recognition as a fine artist. Doré produced a large body of oil paintings, drawings, and sculptures over the course of his career and the products of his prodigious visual imagination went on to influence some of the titans of early twentieth-century popular culture, from Cecil B. DeMille to Walt Disney. Even today, Doré’s legacy continues to assert itself in the realm of comic books and graphic novels.

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