Gustave Doré

Before the photographic half-tone process, photographic images were printed directly onto woodblocks for carving. This process, sometimes referred to as photo-xylography or photographic wood engraving, involved coating the woodblock with light-sensitive material and exposing it under a photographic negative. This is how the image of an oil painting by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez was transferred onto the woodblock on display here. Rather than carve an artist’s drawing into the block, as was the case with Gustave Doré’s Bible illustrations, engravers instead worked into a photographic image. Given its high degree of realism, photographic wood engraving became a popular means of illustrating famous works of art.

Gustave Doré designed a large number of illustrations for the Bible, first published in 1865. This uncarved block offers a rare view of how illustrators prepared their drawings on boxwood for carving. Doré has created a painting in shades of grey (grisaille) with graphite, ink and gouache, suggesting light and atmosphere through layered washes of ink. The engravers were required to find graphic equivalents to the continuous tones of wash on the block. Doré worked closely with his engravers to develop an elaborate language of white marks on a dark ground in an effort to capture the inherent drama of his subjects