284 



DOES, GUSTAVE. 



EARTHQUAKES, ETC., IN 1883, 



of the Legion of Honor. His whole time and 

 attention were given to his profession, and he 

 worked with a diligence arid executed with 

 a rapidity almost incredible. His drawings 

 and sketches number by the thousands (esti- 

 mated at 45,000 to 50,000), and, however im- 

 perfect and extravagant some of them may 



GUSTAVE DOK 



be, owing to this dashing style of production, 

 they yet display as a whole genius and power 

 in a high degree. 



The most prominent of the works illustrated 

 by Dore" are those of Montaigne (1857), Taine's 

 "Voyage aux Pyrenees" (1859), Chateau- 

 briand's "Atala" (1862), Tennyson's "Idylls 

 of the King" (1866-'68), and the fables of La 

 Fontaine (1867). In 1861 he published seventy- 



six large drawings in illustration and exposi- 

 tion of Dante's "Divina Commedia," accom- 

 panied by a blank-verse rendering of the text 

 by William Michael Kossetti ; and two years 

 later appeared a very remarkable series of folio 

 illustrations to " Don Quixote," which bear 

 the marks of careful study from Spanish life. 

 In 1865 he published his striking 

 illustrations of Milton's " Paradise 

 Lost," and during that and the fol- 

 lowing year completed a series of 

 illustrative sketches and paintings 

 on scenes and characters in the Bi- 

 ble. Among the oil-paintings ex- 

 hibited by Dore, and worthy of 

 note, are the "Two Mothers," "Al- 

 satian Women," " A Mountebank 

 with a Stolen Child," and some 

 landscapes. The most noteworthy 

 of his pictures are, scenes from Dan- 

 te, especially his " Paolo and Fran- 

 cesca di Rimini," the battles of the 

 Alma and Inkerman, in the Crimean 

 War (1855-'57), the "Rebel Angels 

 cast down" (1866), the "Gambling 

 Hall at Baden-Baden," the "Neo- 

 phyte" (1868), the "Triumph of 

 Christianity," and " Christ leaving 

 the Prsetorium," which latter meas- 

 ures thirty feet by twenty. 



Dora's popularity was very great, 

 and his works have had a very large 

 sale. There was hardly any subject 

 which he did not undertake, from 

 sublime epics and the sacred scenes 

 and characters of Holy Writ, down 

 to the broadest farce, or nursery and 

 fairy tales. He had all the dash and 

 vivacity of the French race, and he 

 displayed marvelous vigor, imagina- 

 tion, and keen insight in his best 

 works. English critics complain of his defi- 

 ciency in taste and refinement, his lack of sen- 

 sibility and deep feeling, and his frequent care- 

 lessness and slovenliness. It must be admitted 

 that the criticism is in a measure just ; yet at 

 the same time Dor6 was one of the greatest 

 artists France has ever produced, and has fur- 

 nished to the world works of high order and 

 unquestionable merit. 



E 



EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANIC DISTURBANCES 



IN 1883. The year 1883 witnessed, in addi- 

 tion to at least the usual number of disturb- 

 ances ^ of ordinary intensity, two memorable 

 and disastrous convulsions in two of the prin- 

 cipal seats of volcanic activity remaining on 

 the earth's surface Southern Italy and the 

 island of Java. A strong earthquake-shock 

 was felt in Sicily early in May, and several 

 others at different times subsequent to the 

 eruption of Mount Etna in March. At Tabriz, 



in Persia, an earthquake occurred on May 5th, 

 which caused considerable loss of life. One 

 in Mexico, on the 4th of August, caused 20 

 deaths. A village in Tyrol was badly dam- 

 aged by another. The shocks in Chios and 

 .Asia Minor, the scene of frequent seismic dis- 

 turbances, were more serious. There were 

 shocks in Cordova, Seville, Cadiz, and through- 

 out Anatolia, on October 24th, which were 

 supposed to be connected with the Anatolian 

 earthquake. 



