The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of February 11, 2025

Liberty
c. 1865–75
Location: not on view
Description
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.- by 1875-1883Estate of Gustave Doré [1832-1883, L. 681a]1885(Hotel Drouot, Doré studio sale, Paris, April 13, 1885, no. 96)1989(Hotel Drouot, Paris, June 22, 1989, no. 15)1989-1990(Galerie Jacques Fischer-Chantal Kiener, Paris, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH)1990-2008Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH2008The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OHProvenance Footnotes1 Stamped at lower right, in red ink.2 As "La Liberté. Dessin au pinceau avec rehauts de blanc. Haut., 45 cent.; larg., 32 cent."3 As "La Liberté brisant ses chaînes"
- Hotel Drouot, Paris. Catalogue Des Tableaux...son atelier par feu Gustave Doré. April 13, 1885. Lot 96. Mentioned: p. 20De Grazia, Diane. "Drawings in Cleveland: The Evolution of a Collection." In Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1-15. Diane De Grazia and Carter E. Foster, eds. Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in Association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 10, pp. 10-11De Grazia, Diane. "The Evolution of a Collection: Drawings in Cleveland." Master Drawings 38, no. 3 (2000): 249-60. Mentioned: p. 258DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 11Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 47, pp. 104-105Zafran, Eric, ed. Fantasy and Faith: The Art of Gustave Doré. New York: Dahesh Museum of Art, 2007. Mentioned: p. 40, p. 180; Reproduced: fig. 35, p. 40
- French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002).
- {{cite web|title=Liberty|url=false|author=Gustave Doré|year=c. 1865–75|access-date=11 February 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2008.383