Gustave Dore
Gustave Doré was born in Strasbourg on 6 January 1832. He was the second of three children of Pierre Louis Christophe Doré, an engineer, and his wife, Alexandrine Marie Anne Pluchart. .
In 1869, Blanchard Jerrold, the son of Douglas Jerrold, suggested they work together to produce a comprehensive portrait of London. Dore signed a five-year contract with the publishers, Grant & Co, this involved him staying in London for three months a year. Dore was paid the vast sum of £10,000 a year for the proposed art work. The book, London: A Pilgrimage, with 180 engravings by Dore, was eventually published in 1872.
Many criticised that Doré appeared to concentrate on the poverty that existed in London and the Art Journal of accused Doré of "inventing rather than copying". The Westminster Review claimed that " Dore gives us sketches in which the commonest, the vulgarest external features are set down".
However London: A Pilgrimage was a financial success and lead Doré to receive commissions from other British publishers.
