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A watercolour by Gustave Doré for the Musée Paul-Dupuy
16/1/23 - Acquisition - Toulouse, Musée Paul-Dupuy - Going against the grain, Gustave Doré painted grandiose landscapes inherited from Romanticism at a time when Realism and Impressionism had established themselves on the artistic scene. The mountains - "the cathedral of the earth" as Ruskin put it - were one of his favourite subjects. He travelled to the Alps, the Vosges and the Pyrenees, as well as Scotland, and was influenced by Alexandre Calame, the master of alpine landscapes, and also by Gustave Courbet, as shown in the exhibition devoted to him at the Musée d’Orsay in 2014 (see article). From his travels, he brought back sketches that he reworked in the studio, but he could also freely compose his canvases from memories.