Art Institute of Chicago

La Rue de la Vieille Lanterne: The Suicide of Gérard de Nerval

Gustave Doré

Date

1855

Medium

Lithograph in black on light gray China paper laid down on white wove paper

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Gerard de Nerval was a French poet who anticipated the Symbolist movement in his fascination with dreams as a reflection of the supernatural. Destitute and distraught over a thwarted love, he hung himself from a lantern post in 1855. Gustave Doré’s lithograph provides a fitting pictorial memorial to the poet's hallucinatory vision and tragic end. Never pulled in an edition, the lithograph is very rare; it marks the culmination of Doré’s work in the medium. After 1855, the young artist began to rely on professional engravers while he turned increasingly to painting.

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