Lot Essay
REPRODUCED
Stories from the Arabian Nights re-told by Laurence Housman with illustrations by Edmund Dulac, no. 11, illustrating text on p. 22
Stories from the Arabian Nights was the first of Hodder and Stoughton's Christmas Gift Books illustrated by Dulac.
The drawing of The Queen of the Ebony Isles in the Mausoluem illustrates The Story of the King of the Ebony Isles, and has long been erroneously entitled The Queen of the Ebony Isles. The illustration bears the caption 'Began to heap upon me terms of the most violent and shameful abuse'. In the 'List of Illustrations' it is number 12, and in the book it is actually number 11.
'The Arabian Nights gave Dulac an opportunity to indulge in his nocturnes; the softness of the gleam of moonlight on stone, or on shadowy figures, and his use of ultramarine, indigo and Prussian blue, mingled with purples and violets, brought to the illustrations the calm and mystery of Eastern nights. Textures were already important to him. He could capture magnificently the veining and slight translucency of a marble floor and occasionally borrowed a technical trick from photography and overdamped his paper, so as to blur the foreground and bring the eye into apparent focus on the action mid-stage, similarly he would bring out highlights with great delicasy, as in a forehead glistening with perspiration, achieved by dabbing the wet colour with a sponge or blotting paper and a damp brush. He also used little dots to produce a contrast against a background of darker surfaces. Starting naturally with stars against a deep clear sky he went on to the sparkle of jewels on garments...'-C. White
Stories from the Arabian Nights re-told by Laurence Housman with illustrations by Edmund Dulac, no. 11, illustrating text on p. 22
Stories from the Arabian Nights was the first of Hodder and Stoughton's Christmas Gift Books illustrated by Dulac.
The drawing of The Queen of the Ebony Isles in the Mausoluem illustrates The Story of the King of the Ebony Isles, and has long been erroneously entitled The Queen of the Ebony Isles. The illustration bears the caption 'Began to heap upon me terms of the most violent and shameful abuse'. In the 'List of Illustrations' it is number 12, and in the book it is actually number 11.
'The Arabian Nights gave Dulac an opportunity to indulge in his nocturnes; the softness of the gleam of moonlight on stone, or on shadowy figures, and his use of ultramarine, indigo and Prussian blue, mingled with purples and violets, brought to the illustrations the calm and mystery of Eastern nights. Textures were already important to him. He could capture magnificently the veining and slight translucency of a marble floor and occasionally borrowed a technical trick from photography and overdamped his paper, so as to blur the foreground and bring the eye into apparent focus on the action mid-stage, similarly he would bring out highlights with great delicasy, as in a forehead glistening with perspiration, achieved by dabbing the wet colour with a sponge or blotting paper and a damp brush. He also used little dots to produce a contrast against a background of darker surfaces. Starting naturally with stars against a deep clear sky he went on to the sparkle of jewels on garments...'-C. White