L'Apparition
1850–83
Medium
Brush and gray wash over black chalk
Dimensions
18 15/16 x 14 11/16 in. (48.1 x 37.3cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1962
Accession Number
62.60
Tags
Art Historical Context
**L'Apparition by Gustave Doré** Step into the dramatic world of Gustave Doré the 19th-century French master of illustration, with *L'Apparition* (The Apparition), created between 1850 and 1883. Doré, celebrated for his vivid depictions in literary works like Dante's *Inferno* and the Bible infused this drawing with his signature Romantic intensity. Executed in brush and gray wash over chalk—a technique that allowed for masterful gradations of tone and shadow—this 18 15/16 x 14 11/16-inch sheet captures ethereal drama, likely evoking supernatural mystery amid male figures, as suggested by its...
About the Artist
Gustave Doré · 1832–1883
Gustave Doré (1832–1883) was a French artist who became the most celebrated and prolific illustrator of the nineteenth century, creating iconic visual interpretations of world literature that remain definitive to this day. Born in Strasbourg, he showed extraordinary precocious talent, publishing his first lithographs at age fifteen and securing a contract with a Paris publisher while still a teena...