U początków dziennikarstwa… wizualnego Gustave’a Dorégo wizja miasta-molocha

Abstract

ANDRZEJ PIENKOS (University of Warsaw) / At the origins of journalism… of the visual kind. Gustave Doré’s vision of the behemoth city
Gustave Doré continues with his reputation as the greatest illustrator of world literature. Hundreds of his charts illustrating the Bible, the works of Dante, Miguel de Cervantes, John Milton and many other outstanding writers overshadow the artist’s numerous other spheres of activity. Also his remarkable political satire Histoire pittoresque, dramatique et caricaturale de la Sainte Russie (A picturesque, dramatic and caricatured history of Holy Russia, 1854) and the now pretty much forgotten visionary reportage London: A Pilgrimage (1872), a work produced with English journalist William Blanchard Jerrold. The uniqueness of this book is due to the close collaboration of the two authors in the preparatory work (involving their busy days and nights in London, an actual “pilgrimage” through the nooks and crannies of the city, often risky) and in a finally completed text-image reportage, which was at once meticulously credible and poetically synthetic. Indeed, the visionary aspect of many scenes does not take away from the documentary value of the work of both artists, and the ambition to present London as a whole, with its contrasts and richness, seems particularly valuable.