From the series:
The American Weekly Collection of Edmund Dulac
THE WOMEN OF EDMUND DULAC: THE AMERICAN WEEKLY ILLUSTRATIONS (EDMUND DULAC’S AMERICAN WEEKLY ILLUSTRATIONS)
About
In 1923, “Edmund Dulac, the Distinguished English Artist,”as he was billed on the front covers, was contracted by the Hearst organization to paint watercolors for The American Weekly. The contract lasted nearly 30 years.From the 1920’s onward, Dulac’s income came primarily from his American Weekly work. . Dulac painted 106 watercolors from 1924-1951 for thirteen different series for The American Weekly, until his final ‘Tales from the Arabian Nights’ in 1951.
The three series featured here are
- “Famous Vamps of History” from 1929
- “Follies That Destroyed Famous Queens” from 1934
- “Fighting Women” from 1938.
The Vamps series was the first to print clearly, as the Hearst Corporation changed to a better-quality newsprint and reduced the size of the tabloid. This allowed Dulac to paint the image larger, so that by reducing, it gained sharpness. Queens was an overlapping theme, and Semiramis starred in both. Fighting Women was more of an action animated series, with several women in battle, mostly against men foes. Sadly, few triumphed in the end.
Famous “Vamps” of History
1929
- The Queen of Sheba
- Circe the Sorceress
- Salome of Old Jerusalem
- Atalanta and the Golden Apple
- Yang Kuei Fei--The Chinese Cleopatra
- Ariadne
- Semiramis
- Helen of Troy
Follies That Destroyed Famous Queens
1934
- Semiramis
- Dido
- Cleopatra
- Isabella of Bavaria
- Queen Chand
- Marie Antoinette
- Mary Queen of Scots
Fighting Women
1938
- Penthesilea
- Hippolyte and Hercules
- Thomyris
- Zenobia
- Joan of Arc
- Mu-Lan
- Molly Pitcher