Edmund Dulac (1882–1953) was a leading illustrator and artist in France and Britain during the early 20th century. Born in Toulouse, France, he showed an early interest in art. His father worked as a restorer of old paintings, and his uncle collected and studied Eastern art, including Japanese prints and Persian and Indian miniatures. This exposure influenced Dulac throughout his career, and motifs from Eastern art appear in many of his illustrations. Initially, Dulac studied law at the University of Toulouse while taking painting courses at the Toulouse Academy of Fine Arts. Recognized for his talent, he left law to pursue art full-time, studying briefly at Paris’s Académie Julian in 1904 before moving to London.
In London, the 22-year-old Dulac received his first major commission from publisher J.M. Dent to illustrate Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, followed by a complete edition of the Brontë sisters’ works. He then collaborated with Leicester Gallery and publisher Hodder & Stoughton, producing one illustrated book per year. Notable works include Stories from the Arabian Nights (1907), Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1908), Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat (1909), Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales (1910), Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales (1911), Edgar Allan Poe’s The Bells and Other Poems (1912), and Princess Badoura (1913). In February 1912, Dulac became a British citizen.
During World War I, Dulac contributed to charitable projects, illustrating books such as King Albert’s Book (1914), Princess Mary’s Gift Book, and his own Edmund Dulac’s Picture-Book for the French Red Cross (1915). After the war, the market for traditional illustrated books declined. His final major books included Edmund Dulac’s Fairy Book (1916), Tanglewood Tales (1918), and The Kingdom of the Pearl (1920). Dulac continued to work in other areas, including newspaper caricatures, portraiture, theater design, packaging, stamps, and postcards, as well as illustrations for The American Weekly. He remained active in illustration until his death in 1953.
Amazon | Edmund Dulac
French-born illustrator Edmund Dulac brought a sense of enchantment and quiet mystery to everything he touched, and this book is no exception. The collection includes some of Andersen’s most beloved fairy tales — among them The Snow Queen, The Nightingale, and The Emperor’s New Clothes — all reimagined through Dulac’s […]
