Not currently on view
In the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland · as of August 2026
FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG
Gustave Doré is best known for his skill as a draftsman (often seen in book illustrations), as well as for his sense of the fantastic and visionary. In the present drawing, his fluid washes and flowing lines of white add to the dramatic scene of a liberating angel breaking chains. The drawing relates to Doré's Defense of Paris (Memories of 1870) , which treated an event from the recent Franco-Prussian War with a figure representing Liberty. A major difference between the painting and the drawing is that Doré represented soldiers in contemporary uniforms in the painting, but in the drawing of Liberty, he conceived a broader theme in which crowns and medieval costumes evoke an earlier time.
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Don Quixote and Sancho Panza Entertained by Basil and Quiter
Sketch of Hunting Scene (verso)
Sketch for "The Wolf Turned Shepherd" (recto) Sketch of Hunt
Sketch for "The Wolf Turned Shepherd" (recto)
Sketch of a Draper's or Upholsterer's Shop
Young Woman from Valence
Schetsen van personen, waaronder een vrouwelijk naakt
Octave Tassaert (French, 1800–1874) — Heaven and Hell
Jean Louis Forain (French, 1852–1931) — "The German troups r
Michael Lucas Leopold Willmann — The Assumption of the Virgi
Henri Fantin-Latour (French, 1836–1904) — Finale of the Rhin
Giovanni Battista Piranesi|Giovanni Bouchard — The Skeletons
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720–1778) — The Skelet
Louis Boulanger|Frey — The Round of the Sabbath or Witches'
Francisco de Goya (Spanish, 1746–1828) — The Proverbs: Foll
Percy John Delf Smith (British, 1882–1948) — Dance of Death:
Nicolas-François Chifflart (French, 1825–1901) — Melancholy
Gabriel François Doyen — The Deliverance of Cybele, an Alleg
Abraham van Diepenbeeck — Hell