Edmund Dulac | Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1930, signed by the artist

Edmund Dulac

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1930

320 x 262mm. (frame 478 x 399mm.), watercolour, SIGNED AND DATED BY THE ARTIST TO LOWER RIGHT ("30"), mounted, framed and glazed, frame slightly bumped

Original watercolour illustration, for a proposed series of American Weekly covers illustrating the Book of Revelation. The other illustration produced for this series was The Scarlet Woman of Babylon (see lot 275).

Dulac's relationship with Amercian Weekly was halted in 1925, as he was dissatisfied with their reproductions of his illustrations. By 1928, the relationship was renewed, and Dulac produced illustrations for the theme The Book of Revelation, in the hopes they may be acceptable to American Weekly. He visualised the paintings in grisaille, in part as he hoped it would result in a more faithful reproduction, however the magazine would not depart from a coloured cover, and he produced the Famous Vamps of History series for them in it's stead.

PROVENANCE:

From the collection of the late Colin White

EXHIBITION:

Sheffield City Art Galleries, November 1982-May 1983, item no. 32: label to verso

LITERATURE:

Colin White, Edmund Dulac, 1976, p.89; Edmund Dulac: illustrator and designer, 1882-1953 : a centenary exhibition, Sheffield: Sheffield City Art Galleries, 1982