Edmund Dulac

Edmund Dulac (1882-1953), a Frenchman who moved to London as a young man, began his prodigious career in an era when illustrated gift books were highly popular. When their popularity waned in the 1930s, he turned his talents to other areas, including costume and set design and graphics for chocolate boxes and medals.

Dulac, one of the most prolific illustrators of the Golden Age, has an impressive list of books to his name, including the following: The Arabian Nights (1907), Shakespeare's Comedy of the Tempest (1908), The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1909), Stories from Hans Andersen (1911), The Bells and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe (1912), and Edmund Dulac's Fairy Book (1916).

 

Stories from Hans Andersen

Dulac is one of our favorites, and we think this is a superb example of what he could do. This is, of course, "The Real Princess," otherwise known as "The Princess and the Pea." What impresses us is how he uses forced perspective to bring attention to the height of the bed and to the unhappy princess: look at where the ceiling beams and the canopy point. And yet, all the colors and textures seem authentic, with a touch of humor or whimsy, such as the checkered mattress. And think about this: Are you distracted by the bedpost closest to you? No. (At least, not until you read this.) And yet it's big and smack-dab in the center. Dulac was superb.

Read the story online.

  

The Garden of Paradise

  

The Little Mermaid

The Snow Queen

  

From The Bells and Other Poems,
by Edgar Allan Poe

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

 

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