The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1891-11-22

Guinness and hardness characterised hi
comic drawings. He was whimsicaily sug'
esstive and extravagant, and no was q wit on
| paper. but rarely was his pencil provocative oil
genuine run. He was. in short. rather pic
| torial satirist than q caricaturist.
Domcstically DORIS lines were cast In pleas
| sut plaoes. Before he was man he was set
tied in an old and spacious house In the Rue
Saint Dominique. which had been built by his
maternal grandfather. Here and In Q small stu
| do IN the Rue Monsieur le Princehe spent tho
| early years OF his professional life. He was
| methodlcai in tho distribution OF his time and
| repealed any invasion OF his working hours. He
/ was up betimes. and he would be found Mt
home working at the long table where he cxe-
cuted his drawings before elk on summer
| mornings He wentinto the fashionable world.
to tho first nights at the theatres. to musical
parties and Official receptions and balls. but
these diversions were not permitted to inter
fere with his art A glass OF water WAS his
sole refreshment In the evening, and he retired
carly that he might be OF his wood blocks ,in-
der the morning light. His afternoons he gave
to painting in his studio. Notwithstanding
tho amazing number Of illustrations which he
threw out. he never neglected to mako his APP
pearance In the Salon. first with pen-and-ink
sketchoA and then With ambitious canvases
Indeed. As we began with saying. It was Dore's
lifelong dream to effacethe illustrator and to
be accepted a. . painter.
-
H.
Dor6's Inferno" appeared In 1882 At last
weary of scattering himself in ephcmeral
newspaper illustrations and hesty sketches OF
all manner Of subjects in cheap novels. travels.
and histories, DorG felt that tho time had come
to assert his power and let the world sec him
at his best. He chose the Inferno" Of Dante
not 80 much because he had On mate passion
for the horrible as because that poem particu-
larly commends itself to a draughtsman by
reason Of its intensely genuine Imaginative
character as q true vision. q narrative OF
things actually seen by tho mortal eye Of the
narrator, In selecting, therefore, for pictorial
treatment a series OF the awful incidents and
scenes presented in the Inferno" Dorc had
no fdea Of freeginc the blood OF the gentle
damea Of Paris. but a distinct determination
to ofYor to tho world a signal rroof of his
%: wer MS a poetic artist To the success OF this
experime nt Mr. Hamerton has borne witness.
"We see," he SAYS, Francesca Of Eimini
floating naked with her lover in the gloom
OF heli's foul atmosphere, her limbs drawn
outstretched in main. hcr sad face weary with
unendine anguish. dark drops oozing still from
the unn9aleO wound wltnln ner DrouSt. We
SEQ the lovers OF GOOD living. a naked crowd.
chilled and shiyerinc under cold. perpetual
rain. And II any Protestants cared to know
what sort OF punishment hell has in store for
them. Danto has described and Dors pictured
IT," It ia not 20 be inferred. however. that
DORIS confined himself to appalling and re-
voting Incidents; he has also interpreted in
q fine, imaginative way some OF the grandest
and most beautiful passages OF tho Inferno"
Fer example, the rough and robust forest with
its cavernous depths OF shadow and tangled
undergrowth, il which tho feet of Dante arc
engaged; the meeting with Virgil and tho
early scenes o: their journey; the appearance
Of Beatrice in a grove; the meeting with
Homer, Horace, and Naso when. the sky be-
comes serene and nature is in gracious mood.
That Dore's genius, indeed, was not essentially
cruel but was mony-sided. was conclusiyely
demonstrated by his subsequent treatment OF
Dante's Paradise - with TIA visions of anoes
bathed in sunbeams. enchanting effects Of