Saturday 7 November 2015

Edmund Dulac (1882 - 1953) - French-born illustrator

Edmund Dulac was born in Toulouse in France in 1882. After studying art in Toulouse, Dulac moved first to Paris in 1904, then on to London, where he settled.  

During the First World War, Dulac helped to illustrate King Albert's Book which was published at Christmas 1914 by Hodder and Stoughton and sold in aid of the Daily Telegraph Belgian Fund.   He also worked on Princess Mary's Gift Book and the Queen of Roymania's "The Dreamer of Dreams (1915), as well as producing a book of his own in aid of the French Red Cross - "Edmund Dulac's Picture Book".

After WW1, Dulac designed theatre costumes and sets, bookplates, chocolate boxes and also drew caricatures for newspapers.  He contributed regularly to "The American Weekly" and 'Country Life".

Perhaps his best-known work is in the field of stamp design.  He designed the stamp to commemorate King George VI's Coronation, issued on 13th May 1937, and stamps for the 1948 Olympic Games in 1948, the Festival of Britain in 1951 and for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

Dulac died in London on 25th May 1953.


https://archive.org/details/kingalbert00teleuoft