In the mid-19th century, a wave of technological advances swept huge new powers into the laps of illustrators. For over a century, illustrators used those powers to create magical images for mass audiences.
By the end of the 20th century, that wave was moving on, depositing those powers into new laps– – the laps of film makers, video gamers, digital artists, animators.
The places illustrations once dominated–- books, magazines, newspapers – were fading away. The money that once fueled illustrations migrated to the internet. The huge popular audiences that were dazzled by the arrival of illustrations in the 19th century were now ensorcelled by virtual reality phantoms and pictures that moved, talked and glowed, sparking with new kinds of color.
But at the beginning– when images could be accurately and inexpensively reproduced on paper and widely distributed for the first time– a huge economic transformation took place. In 1857 a publisher complained, “The illustration mania is upon our people. Nothing but illustrated works are profitable to publishers.”
No artist was better positioned at the starting line than the great Gustave Doré. A talented, ambitious, prolific visionary, he took full advantage of the new opportunities and became probably the most famous artist in the world during his lifetime. In the early formative years of modern illustration he changed the nature, the social status, and the economics of illustration for the next century. It would be a huge mistake to forget about him.
Before George Lucas, Peter Jackson and James Cameron, Doré thrilled the world by demonstrating that the most extravagant, epic, mind blowing images could be achieved with a simple black line on white paper.
