Edmund Dulac

Edmund Dulac

Edmund Dulac was a French illustrator who lived from 1882 to 1953.  Dulac was born in Toulouse, France.  As a youth he abandoned his law studies to pursue his dream of art at the École des Beaux-Arts and Académie Julian in Paris.  

At age 22, Dulac moved to London where his career took off.  He was commissioned by a London book publishing company to illustrate a series of novels by the Brontë sisters.  After doing a slew of illustrations for British publications, Dulac became a naturalized British citizen in 1912.  

Dulac’s favorite medium was watercolor and unlike other illustrators, he approached his work as a painter, using color to define and give shape to his images, rather than as a traditional illustrator who used ink to define their work.  This makes his illustrations differ from those of his peers, such as Arthur Rackham.  

During WWI, Edmund Dulac contributed images to relief books meant to help the war recovery.  After the war, the overall book culture shifted and his book illustrations were less in demand.  Dulac then switched to newspaper and magazine sketches, though he never again achieved the financial success that he did early in his career.  Dulac also found work creating designs for products and postage stamps.  The year of his death he designed a stamp to honor the coronation of Elizabeth II of England.

Edmund Dulac died in 1953 from a heart attack at 70 years of age.

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