The Green Serpent

Artist: Edmund Dulac (1882-1953)

Date: 1916

Source: Edmund Dulac's Fairy-Book: Fairy Tales of the Allied Nations, First Edition

Style: Original Colour Plate - Photomechanical Colour Half-Tone Process

Overall Mount Size: Approximately 11" x 8.5" or 27.9 x 21.6 cm

Printed Artwork: Approximately 6" x 6.5" or 15.2 x 16.5 cm

Presentation: The original colour print is attached to its original cream backing mount and surrounded by the gold-printed border as issued.

Original Caption: “Laideronnette kissed and embraced the good Fairy Protectress.”

Condition: Antique condition. These are original prints from 1916 and are now more than a century old. Age-related imperfections including foxing, toning, spotting, marks and other signs of age may be present. Please examine the photographs carefully as these form an important part of the condition description and contact us with any questions.

Wider Description of the Collection:

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London, in 1916, Edmund Dulac's Fairy-Book: Fairy Tales of the Allied Nations is one of the most distinctive illustrated gift books of the Golden Age of Illustration. The first edition contained only fifteen colour plates, each presenting Dulac's interpretation of a fairy tale drawn from the traditions of the Allied nations during the First World War.

Dulac worked principally in watercolour, building luminous colour over carefully drawn pencil foundations. His celebrated gift-book illustrations were reproduced using the sophisticated colour half-tone photomechanical process then transforming illustrated publishing. The method used colour photography and separate screened printing elements to translate the subtle washes, jewel-like colour and tonal gradations of the original paintings into print with remarkable fidelity.

These illustrations were produced separately on smooth art paper rather than printed directly onto the text leaves. They were then mounted onto substantial cream backing leaves and framed by a wide gold-printed border, giving each image the appearance of a small work of art within the book. Each example offered here is therefore an original component of the 1916 first edition, not a modern reproduction.

Edmund Dulac (1882-1953), born in Toulouse and established in London from 1905, became one of the defining artists of the Golden Age of book illustration. Alongside Arthur Rackham and Kay Nielsen, he transformed the illustrated gift book into an art form. His atmospheric watercolours, influenced by Persian and Indian miniature painting as well as European decorative art, are admired for their extraordinary colour, pattern and dreamlike theatricality.

With only fifteen colour plates originally issued in the volume, these surviving antique illustrations offer a particularly evocative way to collect Dulac's work and are ideally suited to framing.