Edmund Dulac | Dancing Girl with the Knife, 1949/50, signed by the artist

Edmund Dulac

Dancing Girl with the Knife, or Morgiana dancing before the Captain of the robbers, 1949/50

282 x 251mm. (frame 545 x 495mm.), watercolour, SIGNED LOWER LEFT, mounted, framed and glazed

Original watercolour illustration produced for the 1950/1 series of American Weekly covers, 'The Arabian Nights', published 4th February 1951. A striking image, it depicts the slave girl Morgiana performing a knife dance for the Captain of the Robbers and Ali Baba. The other stories include: The Genie Dahnash (see lot 285), Princess Badoura dressed as the Prince, Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Peri-Banon, Prince Ahmed finds the Enchantress, and The Sack of Gold (see lot 286)

PROVENANCE:

Bonham's, 15th June 2016, Lot 134; From the collection of the late Colin White

EXHIBITION:

Sheffield City Art Galleries, November 1982-May 1983, item no. 48 | Nostalgia & Progress: Illustration After the Second World War, The Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds University Library, November 2014-February 2015.

LITERATURE:

Reproduced American Weekly, 4th February 1951, cover artwork; Colin White, Edmund Dulac, 1976, p.190; Edmund Dulac : illustrator and designer, 1882-1953 : a centenary exhibition, Sheffield: Sheffield City Art Galleries, 1982