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Lot 67
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Gustave Dore ALS thanking fellow artist "Frank" Miles for flower cuttings
Gustave Dore ALS thanking fellow artist "Frank" Miles for flower cuttings
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Description:

Dore Gustave 1832 - 1883 Gustave Dore ALS thanking fellow artist "Frank" Miles for flower cuttings.

4pp ALS on unmarked bifold cream-colored stationery inscribed in French and signed by Gustave Dore as "GuDore" near bottom of fourth page. In this March 12, 1879 letter written from Paris, Dore addressed his correspondent as "Dear Monsieur Miles". In near fine condition with expected paper folds and a few isolated minor discolored spots. A small length of black thread has been sewn near the bottom gutter between the third and fourth pages but does not affect the text. Each page measures 5.25" x 8". Letter is contained in a brown gilt-embossed matted folio with expected wear; two tabbed hinges secure the fourth page of the letter to the folio. A British retail label with the company name "Documents and Autographs, Ltd, 6 Stratford Place, W1" is affixed to the back of the folio.

A considerable portion of the letter can be found below:

"Paris, March 12, 1879

Dear Mr. Miles,

I received in perfect state the beautiful and rare flower cuttings that you had the ? to send me + I wanted to tell you how touched I was at your amiable and charming keepsake. The gardener to whom I confided the dear embryos told me that this summer they would make the glory of my little garden ... When I see these beautiful lilies ... I will think of the charming head that you drew and which you very ingeniously gave as a crown a bouquet of these flowers of innocence ... I will make my way up to London as early as possible to give myself the pleasure of seeing your new productions and the fruit of your young and valiant efforts. I want to see that you have continued your oil painting studies. Very cordially, and with thanks again, GuDore".

The letter revolves around two common interests shared by the two contemporary artists: horticulture and art. The "beautiful and rare flower cuttings" that Miles sent Dore for the latter's "little garden" could have been some of the varieties that Miles collected and cross-bred himself, as he was an avid botanist. The second common thread uniting the two men, art, is also referenced in our letter. Dore references Miles's drawing of a "charming head", says that he looks forward to seeing more of Miles's work in upcoming visits to London, and encourages him to continue working with oil paint. Dore was twenty years older than Miles, and this age difference probably inspired the Frenchman's avuncular encouragement of the "young and valiant" artist.

Gustave Dore (1832-1883) was a French sculptor, caricaturist, printmaker, and illustrator whose artistic career began with newspaper cartoons published at age fifteen. He produced works in multiple media but gained prominence as an illustrator. Dore went on to illustrate scenes from popular seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century novels and even the Bible. Two years earlier, Dore had finished thirty-six drawings for an edition of Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem "Orlando Furioso". This was followed in 1884 by twenty-six steel engravings interpreting Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven".

The English society artist George Francis "Frank" Miles (1852-1891) became famous for his portrait paintings of fashionable female aristocrats like Lille Langtry, Edward VIII's mistress. Miles enjoyed a bohemian lifestyle in London, where he socialized in intellectual and artistic circles that included Irish novelist Oscar Wilde, who was rumored to be his lover. Miles later died in a mental institution near Bristol, England in 1891, some ten years after receiving this letter from a grateful Dore.

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