Liberty
Gustave Doréc. 1865–75
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
Gustave Doré is best known for his skill as a draftsman (often seen in book illustrations), as well as for his sense of the fantastic and visionary. In the present drawing, his fluid washes and flowing lines of white add to the dramatic scene of a liberating angel breaking chains. The drawing relates to Doré's <em>Defense of Paris (Memories of 1870)</em>, which treated an event from the recent Franco-Prussian War with a figure representing Liberty. A major difference between the painting and the drawing is that Doré represented soldiers in contemporary uniforms in the painting, but in the drawing of Liberty, he conceived a broader theme in which crowns and medieval costumes evoke an earlier time.
- Title: Liberty
- Creator: Gustave Doré (French, 1832-1883)
- Date Created: c. 1865–75
- Physical Dimensions: Sheet: 46.5 x 32.9 cm (18 5/16 x 12 15/16 in.)
- Provenance: Estate of Gustave Doré [1832-1883, L. 681a], (Hotel Drouot, Doré studio sale, Paris, April 13, 1885, no. 96), (Hotel Drouot, Paris, June 22, 1989, no. 15), (Galerie Jacques Fischer-Chantal Kiener, Paris, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH), Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Drawing
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.383
- Medium: Brush and brown wash and gray and white gouache with graphite
- Inscriptions: lower right, in graphite: 186x48x63; stamped, lower right, in red ink: ATELIER / GDORE [circled]
- Department: Drawings
- Culture: France, 19th century
- Credit Line: Bequest of Muriel Butkin
- Collection: Drawings
- Accession Number: 2008.383
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