Media: Dulac's H. C. Andersen Part Two

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 6 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about golden age illustration.

The invention of chromolithography at the end of the 19th century opened up a new world for book illustrators. It was no longer necessary for illustrators to limit the number of colors and focus on high contrast line work. The printing press was now capable of reproducing oil paintings and watercolors with all of the richness of the original artwork. This resulted in an explosion of illustrated books around the turn of the century, and made superstars of the artists who created them.

One of the most striking aspects of vintage book illustrations is the use of color. In our memory, our impression of these beautiful images is made up of rich and vibrant hues, but if we analyze the way color is actually being used, we realize that the color harmonies are very subtle, with small brilliant accents used to direct the eye, and careful attention to the rendering of form, texture and lighting effects.

Art is all about beautiful contrasts, and so is the use of color... warm colors against cool colors, light ones against dark ones, large areas of color against small ones... Dulac was a master at juggling these contrasts to create a pleasing color scheme from a muted palette. Some of these pictures are almost monochromatic, with a variety of shades and shapes defining the image. Others have a variety of hues all around the same value. Dulac is constantly varying the way he handles the lighting and color to convey the feeling of the story. Among the 28 color plates that make up Andersen's Fairy Tales, Dulac reproduces the whole spectrum of light, color and mood.

Here are the rest of the illustrations from this classic book...

















For more beautiful illustrations from this classic book, see... Dulac's Hans Christian Andersen Part One.

If you have an interest in golden age illustrators like Dulac, Rackham and Nielsen, you will want to browse the galleries at nocloo.com. The webmaster, Minh Lai has digitized a wide range of books, and has generously provided high resolution scans to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive for inclusion in our database. Visit nocloo.com, and come by the archive on Tuesdays and Thursdays to browse the media database.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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