Representations of War and Conflict in the Painting of Gustave Doré

The project, using the working title Representations of War and Conflict in the Painting of Gustave Doré, proposes to explore one of Gustave Doré’s little-known, but extensive oeuvres in painting. That is, the artist’s representation of conflict through the modes of history painting and allegory. With an initial chapter, Doré’s successful debut as a politicised painter and pamphleteer during the Crimean War will be outlined, contextualising the focus of the two following chapters, which cover his artistic output during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 – 71. The exploration of this largely unaccounted-for aspect of Doré’s career is to the greatest extent facilitated by a new engagement with his earliest, and only contemporary French biographer, René Delorme. Delorme’s text, part-biography, part-catalogue raisonné and part-invitation for the purchase of his art, will be incorporated as an invaluable primary source from both an art biographer, and one of the very few native commentaries on Doré