The Scottish Highlands

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The Scottish Highlands

Artist Gustave Doré (French, 1832-1883)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1875

DimensionsPainting: 42 3/4 × 72 1/8 in. (108.6 × 183.2 cm)
Frame: 58 5/8 × 87 3/4 × 5 1/2 in. (148.9 × 222.9 × 14 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Arthur J. Secor

Object number

1922.108

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 18

Label TextThe rugged, cloud-wreathed mountains in this painting of the Scottish Highlands dwarf the shepherd and his sheep in the foreground. This contrast of scale between human and Nature communicated the sense of awe many 19th-century travelers felt in this land romanticized as one of the last “unspoiled” corners of the British Isles. French artist Gustave Doré made his fame (and a vast fortune) as a prolific illustrator of editions of the Bible, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, and others. However, illustrating was not his greatest passion. “I illustrate today to pay for my paint and my brushes, but my heart has always been with painting,” he proclaimed. Doré first traveled to Scotland in 1873. He sketched incessantly on that initial trip and returned again the following year. The series of paintings of the Highlands that he produced from 1874 to 1881 were based on these sketches. They represented his “reminiscences of the Highlands” rather than topographical descriptions of actual landscapes. As a result, The Scottish Highlands captures a romantic ideal of a timeless, wild land untamed by human civilization.Published ReferencesG. Viatte, "Gustave Doré peintre," Art de France, IV, 1964, p. 350, repr. p. 349.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 55-56, pl. 263.

Gustave Doré, 1832-1883, Strasbourg, Musée d'Art Moderne, 1983, no. 146, p. 155, repr. (col.) p. 169.

Renonciat, Annie, Le vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Dore, Paris, 1983, p. 232, repr. p. 228.

Gibson, Michael, "The unknown Gustave Dore," Art News, vol. 83, no. 2, Feb. 1984, p. 90, repr.

Sotheby's, New York, 19th Century European Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Oct. 23, 1990, no. 27.

Taylor, Bardley L., "The Effect of Surrogation on Viewer Response to Expressional Qualities in Works of Art," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 2001, p. 78, pl. L1, p. 178.

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2005, p. 39, repr. (col.).

Zafran, Eric, Fantasy and Faith: the Art of Gustave Doré, New York, Dahesh Museum of Art, 2007, p. 126-127, 169, 202 n 133, fig. 179, p. 125 (col.).

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 252, repr. (col.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, p. 39, repr. (col.)

Kostenevich, Albert, ed., Impressionism: Sensation & Inspiration: Highlights from the Hermitage, Amsterdam, Museumshop Hermitage Amsterdam, 2012, p. 96, repr. (col.). (not in exhibition).

Gouzi, Christine, "Revoir Gustave Dore," L'Estampille Objet d'Art, no. 498, February 2014, repr. (col.) p. 49.

Kaenel, Philippe, Doré: L'imaginaire au pouvoir, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, 2014, repr. (col.) p. 321.

Exhibition HistoryMinneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Past Rediscovered: French Painting 1800-1900, 1969, no. 32.

Strasbourg, Musée d'Art Moderne, Gustave Doré, 1832-1883, 1983.

Paris, Pavillon des Arts, Musees de la Ville de Paris, 1983.

Paris, Musée d'Orsay; Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, Gustave Doré: Master of Imagination, February-September 2014, no. 282.