Gustave Doré was born in Strasbourg in 1832. He became a book illustrator in Paris and his commissions included work by Rabelais, Balzac and Dante. In 1853 he was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron. This was followed by other work for British publishers including a new illustrated English Bible.

Doré's English Bible (1865) was a great success and in 1867 Gustave Doré had a major exhibition of his work in London. This led to the foundation of the Doré Gallery in New Bond Street.

In 1869, Blanchard Jerrold, the son of Douglas Jerrold, suggested that they worked together to produce a comprehensive portrait of London. Jerrold had got the idea from The Microcosm of London, that had been produced by Rudolf Ackermann, William Pyne and Thomas Rowlandson in 1808.

Doré signed a five-year project with he publishers, Grant & Co, that involved him staying in London for three months a year. He was paid the vast sum of £10,000 a year to create the book, London: A Pilgrimage, with 180 engravings, which was published in 1872.

Although a commercial success, many of the critics disliked the book. Several were upset that Doré had appeared to concentrate on the poverty that existed in London. Gustave Doré was accused by the Art Journal of “inventing rather than copying.” The Westminster Review claimed that “Dore gives us sketches in which the commonest, the vulgarest external features are set down.”

London: A Pilgrimage was a financial success and Doré received commissions from other British publishers. His later work included Paradise Lost, The Idylls of the King and The Works of Thomas Hood. His work also appeared in the Illustrated London News. Dore continued to illustrate books until his death in 1883.

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