Let's discuss the gorgeous detail that Gustav Dore put into

>>2717113
>such a lovely place
>such a lovely face

>>2717113
OP here. When I said pic related I meant the artwork itself not the story about a nobleman murdering his wives

>>2717113
I saw a big exhibit of Dore a couple years ago and it was really mindblowing. He actually did a lot more than just the images people know him for--he was a master of oil paintings (illustrations, landscapes, fine art, biblical scenes etc), he did sculpture and other design work as well. Really impressive artist, and incredibly incredibly talented. There was a pen sketch he did from his head at age 12 that was better than any drawing posted on /ic/. I'd consider him possibly the most naturally talented artist of all time, like he may even have surpassed the natural talent of people like Sargent or Van Dyck or Bernini especially when you consider he didn't have the intense schooling those guys did.

One thing they mentioned at the exhibit though is that he didn't do all that fine detail work that people praise him for in his engravings. Basically he would do the drawing and composition, but in pencil on paper, and he would do these somewhat loose and without any dense hatching, it was essentially loose linework and then maybe he rubbed a graphite block around a bit for the shadows and tones in large masses. These were then given to specialist engravers who translated it into the thousands of tiny lines and details.

Now he may have done some engraving himself, I'm not certain about this because online most places seem to credit him (incorrectly likely) and not other engravers. I'm inclined to think that it was mostly other artists who did the engraving though when you consider how time consuming each one is and the fact that he published numerous books each with like 500 illustrations in them. After having seen that exhibit though this fact doesn't diminish him at all, in fact I left the exhibit with way more appreciation for him than I walked in with.