Tuesday, 21 April 2020

British Illustrators 33: Edmund Dulac and The Little Mermaid


Edmund Dulac was actually born French, but moved to England in his early 20s, and became a British citizen in 1912.

On arrival in London, Dulac was commissioned to illustrate Dent’s edition Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. He worked for the Pall Mall Gazette, and then was commissioned by Hodder and Stoughton to illustrate a number of books, including the works of Hans Christian Anderson, from which I have tried to copy an illustration he made of the Little Mermaid.

When I look at Dulac’s illustrations for this and other books I am struck that he works in a similar style to his contemporary Arthur Rackham. After the first World War there was much less demand for illustrated picture books of the style he had been producing before, and so he moved into other areas, such as newspaper caricatures, portraiture and theatre design. Like later illustrators Ralph Steadman and Gerald Scarfe, Dulac also illustrated postage stamps for the Royal Mail.

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