Edmund Dulac | Original illustration for The Arabian Nights ("It was in vain..."), 1907, signed by the artist

Dulac, Edmund

"It was in vain that all the wisest physicians in the country were summoned into consultation", or The Doctors, 1907

298 x 300mm. (frame 538 x 552mm.), watercolour, SIGNED AND DATED BY THE ARTIST TO LOWER LEFT ("07"), mounted, framed and glazed

Original illustration for 'The Magic Horse' in Stories from The Arabian Nights, published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1907. As illustrator for Hodder & Stoughton's Christmas gift book, Dulac succeeded Arthur Rackham who had illustrated Rip van Winkle and Peter Pan for the previous two years. To coincide with the publication of Stories from The Arabian Nights, The Leicester Galleries held an exhibition of the original watercolours, in the first of what would become yearly displays of Dulac's work.

For another original illustration for the same work, see lot 262

PROVENANCE:

Purchased from The Leicester Galleries by J Strain Esq. in December 1907: purchase note to verso of frame; from the collection of the late Colin White

EXHIBITION:

The Leicester Galleries, November-December 1907, no.37: "Ernest Brown & Phillips: The Leicester Galleries" label | Sheffield City Art Galleries, November 1982- May 1983, no. 11: label to verso | Dulwich Picture Galleries, 28 November 2007-17 February 2008, no.96

LITERATURE:

Stories from the Arabian Nights, Hodder and Stoughton, London 1907; Catalogue of an Exhibition of Water-colour drawings illustrating stories from "The Arabian Nights", By Edmund Dulac, Ernest Brown & Phillips, The Leicester Galleries, London, November-December 1907; Colin White, Edmund Dulac, 1976, p.25-34; Edmund Dulac: illustrator and designer, 1882-1953 : a centenary exhibition, Sheffield: Sheffield City Art Galleries, 1982; The age of enchantment : Beardsley, Dulac and their contemporaries, 1890-1930, London: Dulwich Picture Gallery, [2007]