La Rue de la Vieille Lanterne: The Suicide of Gérard de Nerval

Prints and Drawings

1855

Gustave Doré
French, 1832-1883

Gerard de Nerval was a French poet who anticipated the Symbolist movement in his fascination with dreams as a reflection of the supernatural. Destitute and distraught over a thwarted love, he hung himself from a lantern post in 1855. Gustave Doré’s lithograph provides a fitting pictorial memorial to the poet’s hallucinatory vision and tragic end. Never pulled in an edition, the lithograph is very rare; it marks the culmination of Doré’s work in the medium. After 1855, the young artist began to rely on professional engravers while he turned increasingly to painting.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Gustave Doré
Title: La Rue de la Vieille Lanterne: The Suicide of Gérard de Nerval
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1855
Medium: Lithograph in black on light gray China paper laid down on white wove paper
Dimensions: Image/chine: 50.2 × 34.3 cm (19 13/16 × 13 9/16 in.); Sheet: 57.6 × 40 cm (22 11/16 × 15 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Mary S. Adams Fund
Reference Number: 1986.455
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/105494/manifest.json

Fonds Français 198

Leblanc, Henri 69

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