Edmund Dulac

Edmund Dulac, illustrator and designer

Edmund Dulac (1882-1953) was born in Toulouse, France as the only child in a relatively wealthy family. He started drawing at 14 years old, proved his artistic talent (caricatures were his first achievements), and sold several designs while he was studying law in his birth town. He finished the initial two years of law and decided to pursue a career as an artist. Dulac fell in love with British illustration, changed his name from Edmond to Edmund, and moved to London where he soon excelled as a talent comparable to the already successful Arthur Rackham. From 1906 to 1917 he created about ten luxurious gift books which are valuable collectors' items today. Nowadays, he is known as an extremely versatile designer with a special interest in Orientalism. Stories from Arabian Nights published in several books are among his signature works.

Credit: https://vintagefairytalepics.blogspot.com/2024/07/aladdin-and-wonderful-lamp-images.html

We prepared a few more interesting facts about Edmund Dulac's life and work:

* He was married twice but none of the marriages succeeded and he died childless. His first love was thirteen-year-old American Alice May de Marini. Their love didn't last and they divorced and in 1911 married Elsa Arnalice who stayed his companion, muse, and model. The First World War made a huge impact on both but Elsa never recovered her psychological stability. They divorced in 1923 when he was already in love with writer Helen Beauclerk, a writer whose books he later illustrated as well. His portraits of female characters also changed with his new muse who stayed with him for the rest of his life.

* Critics praised Dulac's sense of colors. He was the first successful illustrator who didn't start drawing the lines of the characters in the picture to color them later but went right to the colors. His weak point was the expressions of the characters who lack the expressions of emotions. When the market with gift books ended, he fell into financial troubles, but at least partially compensated them with designs for American Weekly. Caricatures, landscape paintings, and portraits helped to get him through liquidity problems.

* Edmund Dulac had several interesting hobbies. He shot with pistols, danced flamenco, and was very active in then-modern spiritualism. He collaborated at numerous theatre productions as a stage designer, creator of posters, music composer (and musician!), program designer, etc. Another important field of his creativity was the creation of stamps, medals, and banknotes, getting orders from the Royal Mail and even Charles de Gaulle, the president of the French government in exile, who personally visited him to order stamps and banknotes for France and its colonies. During a vivid flamenco dance, he suffered a deadly heart attack. He lived fully right to the end.

There is a special website dedicated to Edmund Dulac.