CORRIDA DE TOROS

Paris: L. Turgis, ca. 1860. EXTREMELY RARE SUITE OF HAND-COLOURED LITHOGRAPHS ON BULLFIGHTING. A complete suite of six large hand-coloured original lithographs by Gustave Doré. 45.5 by 61.4 cm, Each plate with the running title 'Corrida de Toros', individual captions in Spanish and French and with 'G. Doré del. A fine set with occasional evidence of age. FIRST ISSUE AND VERY RARE, A SUITE OF IMAGES ON BULL FIGHTING AS SEEN AND CHRONICLED BY GUSTAVE DORÉ. In Corrida de Toros, Doré captured the strength and movement of the bull, the tension, the danger in the ring - it almost seems as if the bull has a chance, not just at survival but of actually conquering the men on foot and horseback who are supremely annoying it to rage. Doré appears to sympathize with the bull and the tragedy of bullfighting rather than the glory of the fighters.
‘The French artist, Gustave Doré, was born in Strassburg in 1832. In 1848, he moved to Paris where it was noted that “his facility as a draughtsman was extraordinary.” He was a prolific worker whose talents and creations are greatly valued to the present day. Doré’s first illustrated story was published when he was only fifteen years old. His talent was evident even earlier, however. At age five he had been a prodigy troublemaker, playing pranks that were mature beyond his years. Seven years later, he began carving in cement. Subsequently, as a young man, he began work as a literary illustrator in Paris, winning commissions to depict scenes from books by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton and Dante.
In 1853, Doré was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron. This commission was followed by additional work for British publishers, including a new illustrated English Bible. A decade later, he illustrated a French edition of Cervantes's Don Quixote, and his depictions of the knight and his squire, Sancho Panza, have become so famous that they have influenced subsequent readers, artists, and stage and film directors' ideas of the physical "look" of the two characters. Doré also illustrated an oversized edition of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", an endeavor that earned him 30,000 francs from publisher Harper & Brothers in 1883.
Doré's English Bible (1866) was a great success, and in 1867 Doré had a major exhibition of his work in London. This exhibition led to the foundation of the Doré Gallery in Covelant Bond Street. After an illness, he died in January of 1883.