The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1882-01-11

0use0vo Dore.
Gustave Dose h nearly nfy years OF
agc, and looks about thtrty-Ave. OF me.
dunn statare, he has the frame Of IN NC
robot and the head Of poet. To zee
him In the street you would feel in
clined to give him ! penny, for he h the
worst dressed man In Paris, the scape-
goat Of his tailor, who inflicts upon him
al his insists. Dore passes his life in
drawing and painting, sleeping or dan
cling about with q fiddle in his hand.
In society, when he h not mapping or
llddling, he IL constantly making
sketches. His fertility Is proiigiOus,
and on that account his brother artists
do not look upon him with . favorable.
eye. A statistician has calculated that
II Dore's paintings and drawings were
laid fiat, side by side, they would suffice
to cover the railway track from Lyons
TO Paris. He attaches no importance to
his work, and although in business
transactions, q man of singular acute
ness, In private life he IL the most ''giv-
ing' Of artists. When he was in
Switzerland few years ago he used t.
give his water cOl0rs away right and
LETT to his 'neighbOn ut the table d'hOte.
AT dinner at Madame Ms the other .lay
IN English lady begged Dore to write
his name on slip Of paper, 40 that she
might possess his illustrfOlls autograph.
''Oh: madame, I will give you sOnie-
thing better than u mere signature"
And suiting the action to the word. he
took off his Hack nscktie. asked for
bit Ut fIake-p0wder, mixed 1t with water,
and, with match, he painted on the.
necktie u gay procession of cupids offer
ing q necktie to u lady, signed it ''Gus-
tave DOre," and handed It CALAMITY to
his fair n.ln,irer.
Gnstave DOre'x talent is universal. He
H. painter, engraver. designer, sculptor
and watcr-c0lOr painter. In painting he
does nearly everythiu with the brush.
and fixes the position Of the figures with
the (,arest possible indications In char
coal. His ocular memory isastOnishing.
In his studio he has no Documents, no
sketches, no models. Recently he made
\ replica Of his great picture Of Christ
leaving the pr,etOrium, entirely from
memory. When he was doingh Is great
hook on London and visiting all the
dens Of Whitechapel and Wrapping. he
never made sketches on the olNt. hut
only ut night when he returned to his
hotel. Unlike most of the artists Of the
day, Gustave Dore has no taste for brio
a-brac and ''bibclOts." His studio, for
merly a riding-scht,Ol, IL u scene Of in
describable disorder, full Of immense
scaff0l(ling, huge canvasses. immense
Palettes, such ~ Hercules might have
used had he taken to painting, cOlOrs
and brushes all pell-mell, piles Of draw
ings, statues, nodelling-clay, ctohings,
engravings, w00d-cuts, and In the midst
a piano, and on the piano astraalivarius.
When he does venture to buy ''hibel0ts'
he chooses the most abOllinahle rub
bish, for instance, Bohemian glass Of
the most modern manufacture.
Lately bore l,as had craze for sculp-
ture, and all the great bronze foundrie~
are anxious to buy his models. The COL
l,ssal vase, 1.-THE ErolHe of lsacchus, p"
which was exhibited ut the Universal
Exhibition of 1873, H. now lwing cast nj
the artists own expense.
For the lnast seven years I)orc has
been working mt the illustration Ot
Shakespeare, which he IL anxious tn
make his masterpiece Of illustration.
Thanks tn his knowledge Ut German
he was horn ut Str .siNurg-he has lxrl,
able to gct very near tn Shakespeare and
to comprehend him ~ few Frcnchnle,l
have done. To give an idea Of the care
he IL taking over the work, he says h.
has spent over Sta|, ON in essays and
plates, which for tho most part he has
rejected ~ unsatisfactory. An Anleri-
can and an English publisher are rivals
for the possession Of this work, which
will not be finished for year or two to
come.
No Frenchman has been decorated
with more foreign order. Of chivalry,
but he never wears any decoration ex-
cept the Legion Of Honor, and no tri-
unlph abruatl, however great, gives him
the same Joy ~ the smallest sncctss won
ut Paris.-( Boston Courier.