I now give you illustrations by Edmund Dulac from Shakespeare's The Tempest. For those of you who have known me for a while, you will know that I have a great love for Shakespeare and a liking for fairies and butterflies. This has lead to a natural liking of The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the archive had illustrations of The Tempest. These are some of my favorites from the whole group I will eventually get through showing you.
This first one is of Stefano offering a drink to Caliban as the Jester, Trinculo, looks on. I have decided to share this with you first of all because of how beautiful the sky is in this illustration, just as a real stormy sky is not just an expanse of gray, neither is this one. I also wanted to post this illustration because it is one of my favorite parts of the play seeing as it is one of the only bits of comedic relief from what can be a somewhat dark play, despite the young love. Sadly, this illustration is not very humorous, except for maybe the look on Trinculo's face.
Now for the gorgeous fairy and spirit illustrations, there is a lot of blue in this one. I think the fact that there just seems to be a blue wash over every part of the illustration really accentuates the magical feeling.
I like the sense of movement caused by an invisible wind in this one conveyed by the water, hair and clothes.
This is an illustration of Ariel. Ariel is so elegant, which contrasts nicely with the wild flowers the spirit is smelling.
These next two are by Florence Harrison from Elfin Song. This continues in the fairy vein.
I like the feeling of sadness and loneliness in this none. I really like the human figures in these next three (all by Harrison, but the last two are from Poems of Rosetti).
These next two are by Kay Nielson from Arabian Nights. Nielsen first made these illustrations in 1921, but from what I can tell they were not published due to money issues. But they were found and finally printed in 1975. Thank goodness because they are brilliant. I had a really tough time deciding which ones to include. Not only is the main part of the illustration enchanting but the borders are just as lovely. That is why I included this first one. I love the clouds that edge the picture.
This one is just great! Passion just oozes out of every part of this. It is reflected in their embrace, their clothes, and their ignorance of the fire raging around them. I also really like the smoke because all of the colors are separated and it works so well.
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