Gustave Doré was born in Strasbourg on January 6, 1832. He moved to Paris as a teenager and began publishing caricatures for Le Journal pour rire at the age of fifteen.

Doré worked as an illustrator, draughtsman, caricaturist, painter, watercolorist, and sculptor. He became internationally known for illustrations of works by Dante, Rabelais, Cervantes, Milton, Perrault, and other writers, as well as the Bible and studies of contemporary London.

Doré died in Paris on January 23, 1883, aged fifty-one. His widely circulated illustrations shaped the popular imagery of major literary and biblical texts and influenced later illustration, comics, and film.