THE WOMEN OF EDMUND DULAC: THE AMERICAN WEEKLY ILLUSTRATIONS

Description

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 and “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