By DARLA MCCAMMON
Lakeland Art Association

Artists have long illustrated paintings representing the passage of the old year to the New Year as it is celebrated on Jan. 1.  A great variety of artists and illustrators have left their interpretation of this event.  The drawings vary from almost macabre works showing the grim reaper in long beard, flowing gown, and a huge bloody scythe to innocent infants wrapped in ribbons imprinted with the current new year.  One of those illustrators was a man named Edmund Dulac who created the illustration shown from a book titled “Fairies I have met.” This work is a wonderful, mystical watercolor and is a prime example of work by Dulac.

Edmund Dulac was born Oct. 22, 1882 from Toulouse France.  He originally studied to become a lawyer but switched to art schools when he began winning awards for his artwork.  At 22 years of age Dulac moved to London and within a short while, Dulac asked to become a British citizen and was subsequently naturalized. His first great achievement was a commission from the famous publisher J.M. Dent.  This commission took him through 10 volumes of work by the Bronte authors and included the now legendary, Jane Eyre. He then began receiving commissions to do work for many illustrated books which were the rage both in Europe and the United States.  Some of the work he completed during this time under an arrangement with a famous gallery (Leicester Galleries) and Hodder & Stoughton were also to become legends.  Among them, The Arabian Nights, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Sleeping Beauty, Stories from Hans Christian Anderson, The Bells and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe and Tempest by Shakespeare. These productions were something like the coffee table books that have become popular today. The deluxe and expensively bound books not only told a tale but that story was well illustrated with exquisite paintings and drawings that pleased the reader.  This type of book eventually fell out of favor, likely because of the expense of publication and the ultimate purchase price—a price required in order to achieve profitability.  His last books became very rare and included Tanglewood Tales, completed in 1918 followed by The Kingdom of the Pearl produced in 1920. 

His credentials became impeccable as a fine illustrator and artist and Dulac’s wife, Helen Beauclerk also wrote two books which he illustrated for her.  As a favor to the well-liked Queen Marie of Romania, Edmund Dulac also illustrated two books for her titled Dreamer of Dreams and Stealers of Light.

Dulac shifted to work for magazines and newspapers and also designed postage stamps for Great Britain when the illustrated book market started to disappear, although he continued to remain faithful to this revenue stream throughout his life.  He just created fewer of those books and they became less luxurious. He also designed banknotes for France and Poland during World War II

 It was while illustrating one of his beloved book commissions that Dulac died of a heart attack on May 25, 1953 in London.  Consider yourself fortunate if you have the opportunity to find one of his volumes and can view his brilliant and fanciful illustrations.  Meantime Dulac has created a breathtaking view of the beautiful New Year awaiting all of us.  Let’s make the most of it!

Happy New Year!

Upcoming and Current Events:

• New exhibit at Warsaw City Hall Art Gallery through February. Open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. 
• LAA gallery – Closed for the Season.
• For more information on topics in this column, please contact Darla McCammon at [email protected] or )574) 527-4044.