New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-12-18
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GVST1VE DORE.
From The Boston Courier.

From Boston Courier
Gustave DOre IS nearly fifty years OF age and
looks about thirty-hye. OF medium stature, no
has the frame of acrobat and the head OF poet.
To him IN the street you would Ieei inclined 70
give him "A penny for he Is the worst dressed man
In Paris the seape-gOat of his tailor, VINO luillets
upon him all his insists. DoIe passes ms ne IN
drawing and painting, sleeping or dahclhX ABOUT
with fiddle in his hand. In society, when ne IS
not mapping hddlnE, he is constantly mdhihg
sketches. His fertility is prodigi0us, and on that
account his brother-art,sts do not look upon MN
with f. vOrable eye statistlclan has calculated
that DOres pictures and drawings, If lana nat SIDE
by side, would suffice to cover the railway track
from Paris to Lyons He attaches no importance TO
his work and although in BUSINESS transactions
man of singular acuteness III private lie he Is the
most "giving" of artists. When ne was IN
Switzerland "A few years ago be used TO give MS
water coors away right and left to his nelgnDofs at
the table dhOie. At dinner at Madame AS tne
other day, English lady begged D9re to write
his a slip OF paper so tnat she might poS-
sess his illustrlOus autograph. -, ,..
Oh! Madame, will give you some thing better
Aud shifting the action to the word, he took of
his black neckte, asked for hi OF iiake-poWder;
mixed it with water, and, with match, he PAINTED
on the necktie gay procession OF cuplds ouer!hg
necitie To n lady, signed 10 " Gustave D0re, and
handed it calamity to his fair admrer
Custave DOre's talent IL universal lie Is paih,ef'
enurayer. designer, sculptor ana WIter-c0lOT-
painter In painting he does nearly everything
with the brush and fixes the position OF the hguTes
with the barest possible indications IN charcoal.
His ocular memory Is astonishing. In MS st9do
he has no documents. sketches, no models.
Recently ne made a replica of hts great picture OK
Christ leaving the PrRtOrium. entirely from
memory When he was doing his great book on
London and visiting all the dens of NhIiechapel
and Wrapping, he never made sketches on the spot,
but only at night when he returned 10 his no. 'i'
Unlike most of the artists of the day, GustaYe Dore
has no taste for bric-a-brac and tibei0fs. HIS
studio. formerly a rding-schOol, is a scene or
indescribable disorder full OF immense stanold-
iugs huge canYaSes, immense paIcttes, such aS
Hercules night have used had he taken to painting,
colors and brushes all pell NELL piles of drawings,
statues mOdelling-cay etChlngs, engrayings, wood
cuts and in the midst piano, ana on the piano a
Stradivarius. Whenever he does venture TO bny
bbeOls he chooses the most abOmnable tubDlSh' TOT
instance Bohemian glass of the most modern manu-
facturc.
Lately DOre has had craze for sculpture, and all
the great bronze fOUndrleS are anxious 10 Duy hls
models. rhe colossal vase, Tho Epopea OF Bacchus:
" hich was exhibited az the Universal aAhbtiOh OF
1878 is now being cast at the artists own eN 1ense.
For the ua 4 seven years Dore has been WORKING
NJ the Illustration of Shakespeare, which he Is
anxious to make his masterpiece Of Illustration.
Thanks to his knowledge of German-he was born
ut trasburg-he has been able to get very near TO
Shakespeare. and 10 comprehend hun as lew
Trcuchuen have done. To give an idea Of the care
he is taking over the work be SAYS that he has spent
over $50 900 in essays and plat, IS which De mas lor
the most part rejected unsatisfactory. An
American aud an English publisher are rivals ior
the possession of this work. which VIII not lie M
ished tor a year or tw0 to come.
No Freuchuan has been decorated Win more
foreign orders of chivary. but he mover wears any
decoration except the Legion Of Honor and no
triumph abroad. however great, gives him the
same 10y Is the smallest success Won at fdriS