Description
Gustave Doré is best known for his skill as a draftsman (often seen in book illustrations), as well as for his sense of the fantastic and visionary. In the present drawing, his fluid washes and flowing lines of white add to the dramatic scene of a liberating angel breaking chains. The drawing relates to Doré's Defense of Paris (Memories of 1870), which treated an event from the recent Franco-Prussian War with a figure representing Liberty. A major difference between the painting and the drawing is that Doré represented soldiers in contemporary uniforms in the painting, but in the drawing of Liberty, he conceived a broader theme in which crowns and medieval costumes evoke an earlier time.
Provenance
Estate of Gustave Doré [1832-1883, L. 681a] (by 1875-1883); (Hotel Drouot, Doré studio sale, Paris, April 13, 1885, no. 96) (1885); (Hotel Drouot, Paris, June 22, 1989, no. 15) (1989); (Galerie Jacques Fischer-Chantal Kiener, Paris, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH) (1989-1990); Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1990-2008); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (2008)
Accession Number
2008.383
Medium
Brush and brown wash and gray and white gouache with graphite
Dimensions
Sheet: 46.5 x 32.9 cm (18 5/16 x 12 15/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Bequest of Muriel Butkin
Tags
Drawing Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Graphite & Pencil Gouache French
Background & Context
Background Story
Gustave Dore (1832-1883) was a French artist known for the dynamically composed, precisely observed illustrations and paintings that make him one of the most accomplished artists of the 19th century. Liberty from c. 1865-75 depicts the personification of Liberty in the dynamically composed, precisely observed manner that distinguishes Dore's best work from the more general allegorical painting of his contemporaries. Dore is best known for his illustrations of literary classics, but Liberty shows his ability to create dynamically composed allegorical paintings, and the c. 1865-75 date places this in the period when French art was deeply engaged with questions of liberty and political freedom.
Cultural Impact
Liberty is important in the history of French painting because it demonstrates the dynamically composed, precisely observed manner that Gustave Dore—one of the most accomplished artists of the 19th century—brought to allegorical subjects. The personification of Liberty—representing the political and social aspirations of the French people—was one of the most important subjects in 19th-century French art, and the c. 1865-75 painting shows this subject at its most dynamically composed.
Why It Matters
Liberty is Dore's dynamically composed allegorical painting: the personification of Liberty rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the most accomplished artists of the 19th century. The c. 1865-75 painting shows the political and social aspirations of the French people at their most dynamically composed.
