DORE, GUSTAVE (1832-1883)

"Covent Garden Market" (1871)
ink & gouache on brown paper
18 x 25.5cm
signed lower right
*estate of A.B. Triggs
*private collection, Sydney
 
Doré was a famous 19th century French artist, printmaker, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving, and was well known for illustrating several important national publications, including the Bible. This is a detailed ink and chalk sketch of Covent Garden, completed during his important trip to London in 1871. This particular illustration was the basis of a series of wood engravings for Blanchard Jerrold’s “London, A Pilgrimage” (1872), a publication that would serve as the central inspiration for a young Vincent Van Gogh.
 
“If you can afford it – if I can, I’ll do it too – subscribe to this year’s Katholieke Illustratie, which has Doré’s prints of London – the wharves on the Thames, Westminster, Whitechapel, the Underground railway” (Vincent in a letter to brother Theo, 13 Jan 1877)
“The other day I saw the whole of Doré’s work on London — I say, that’s splendidly beautiful and noble in sentiment — for example in the room in the night refuge for beggars, which you have, I believe, and otherwise can still get.” (Vincent in a letter to Anthon Van Rappard, 19 Sep 1882). 
 
It is on brown paper (common medium for Dore sketches), which has darkened with age. It is hand-signed by the artist and has been professionally framed in a custom gilt, gallery frame, with custom plaque. Also included is a copy of an early auction catalogue from the estate of the original owner, a famous Australian art collector.