Gustave Doré
(1832 - 1883)
 

Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré was a French printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravings illustrating classic literature, especially those for the Vulgate Bible and Dante's Divine Comedy. These achieved great international success, and he became renowned for printmaking, although his role was normally as the designer only; at the height of his career some 40 block-cutters were employed to cut his drawings onto the wooden printing blocks, usually also signing the image.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Doré

Flower Sellers of London
About 1875
Oil on Canvas
134 x 221 cm
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/flower-sellers

 

Gustave Doré stayed in London intermittently between the years of 1868 and 1873. During this time he made studies of flower girls by the Royal Exchange, painting them paradoxically with French baskets. Doré’s biographer stated that he “was touched by the sad beauty to be found in poor street flower sellers”, a sympathy that can perhaps be felt in this painting. Doré’s works highlighted the gulf between high society and the grim life of the poor in the capital city.