Dulac's Fairy Tale Illustrations in Full Color (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)

Looking at the illustrations of Edmund Dulac is like gazing into the center of an opal. The gowns of his fairies and princesses shimmer like reflections of the stars which he spatters across his azure skies. His colors are insubstantial rather than solid so that his figures often seem to float in an other-worldly space, as does Beauty in the Beast's garden. Her feet seem barely to touch the ground as, hands to her ears, she tries to shut out the chatter of the lustrous blue and red parrots, and the iridescent cockatoos that are perched on gigantic hoops, hung from the tall trees behind her (plate 17).Among the 54 plates, my favorite is plate 25 from Hans Christian Andersen's "Emperor and the Nightingale." The splendid illustration depicts the poor fisherman in his sampan, stopping to listen to the nightingale singing in the trees. Just below a branch, we see part of a thin crescent moon; only the slightest indication of its reflection delineates the sky from the sea (I was a bit disappointed that the editors omitted the haunting illustration of Death, hovering over the Emperor's bed, pausing to listen to the nightingale). I also love the illustration on the inner title page of Princess Sheherazade and her white peacock; and plate 48 of the Young Man on the Firebird discovering the sleeping Princess, in its stylization, is reminiscent of illustrations on Russian lacquer boxes.As prolific as Dulac was, there are bound to be omissions (such as the Emperor in his underwear parading through the streets; or the transformed Mermaid discovered by the Prince at the foot of the castle's sea-stairs), but with the Sleeping Beauty, Bluebeard, Cinderella; the Andersen fairy tales; the Arabian Nights; the Firebird, and some of the lesser-known tales, "Dulac's Fairy Tale Illustrations in Full Color" represents a satisfying addition to one's library of childhood memories.

Exactly what I am looking for. Image quality is good, paper quality is medium weight with mat coating. Each plate has a quote and where the original plate was for. No complaints!

this book is very interesting , I like the drawings very much, Dulac is a very amazing artist.

Very Nice!

ARE YOU SERIOUS?The book is absolutely perfect but NOOOOO 😭

I had never heard of Dulac before and ordered his book along with the Rackham collection. I actually was blown away by Dulac's work and am really amazed that after studying in art and exploring classic illustration, I had never come across this guy. I have heard of Rackham and seen his work, but I enjoy Dulac even more...his rich color and beautiful compositions are inspiring.

This truly is magical art. There are other Dulac illustration books out there (also published by Dover, I think) that I'll probably get eventually. Sometimes you just need a good escape into an image, and this little anthology provides that, certainly. Dover is generally pretty reasonably priced, too. Lovely art.

Dulac is one of the golden age illustrators, well know for his fair beauty princess-figures and other detailed fantasy illustrations. This book gives a good sample of his work and the picture quality in this book is very good.