Gustave Doré’s Histoire de la Sainte Russie (1854): The Invention of Graphic Rhetoric, or the Artist at War

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Histoire pittoresque, dramatique et caricaturale de la Sainte Russie (1854) by Gustave Doré (1832–83) is unique in the history of nineteenth-century European graphic art and an exceptional project within Doré's artistic career. Illustrated with 500 wood engravings, it narrates the history of Russia from its origins to the contemporary Crimean war. This article examines the volume as a tour de force of technological innovation and graphic rhetoric that confronts the challenge of how to represent war and its violence. To appeal to a broad audience, the artist pioneered a caricatural, graphic sequential history that anticipates modern bande dessinée tackling twentieth-century warfare.