Paul Gustave Doré is a rock star of the great lyrical epic literary world of the 19th Century. In the New Wave Romantic super group, Doré plays Bass (Coleridge on lead guitar, Shelley on keyboards, Tennyson on drums, Lord Byron lead vocals, obvs).

He was born in France in 1832 and lived to be fifty, and a very rich man. A prolific engraver, artist, illustrator, and sculptor, working primarily as a wood and steel engraver. He produced over 100,000 sketches in his lifetime, averaging 6 sketches per day for each day he lived. Even though he was an untrained, self-taught artist, who never used a live model, and who could not sketch from nature, his work is considered some of the most important in the entire engraving art world.

The thing I find the most incredible about his engravings is the use of light. There is so much darkness both literally and figuratively in the subject matter he is most famous for but the skillful employment of light really confirms why his individual vision granted him such acclaim and wealth.

Thanks to Wikipedia