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The Vision of Hell (Inferno)

1866
Not on view
Out of his facility for grotesque humor and gaslight melodrama, Doré; invented some 10,000 illustrations for books and magazines that were duplicated for simultaneous publications in Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Saint Petersburg, Stockholm, London, and Haarlem. With illustrated editions of the Bible, Dante's Inferno, Cervantes' Don Quixote, Poe's The Raven, and a host of other classics popular at mid-century, he was the reigning master of the coffee-table book. To save the time it would have taken to draw in line, he often painted boxwood blocks with tones of ink and opaque white for engravers to interpret by inventing lines and dots.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Vision of Hell (Inferno)
  • Author: Dante Alighieri (Italian, Florence ca. 1265–1321 Ravenna)
  • Illustrator: Gustave Doré (French, Strasbourg 1832–1883 Paris)
  • Translator: Henry Francis Cary (British (parents Irish), Gibraltar 1772–1844 London)
  • Engraver: Hélidore-Joseph Pisan (French, Marseille 1822–1890 Bailly)
  • Publisher: Cassell, Petter and Galpin London
  • Date: 1866
  • Medium: Wood engraved illustrations
  • Dimensions: 15 1/8 x 12 x 1 3/4 in. (38.4 x 30.5 x 4.5 cm)
    sheet: 14 3/4 x 10 5/8 in. (37.5 x 27 cm)
  • Classification: Books
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1905, transferred from the Library
  • Object Number: 21.36.133
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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