In the pantheon of illustrated books from the Golden Age of illustration, the 1910 edition of The Sleeping Beauty, brought to life by the French-born artist Edmund Dulac, stands as a luminous masterpiece of refinement and imagination. Published by Hodder & Stoughton in London, this volume emerged at the zenith of Dulac’s career, following his celebrated works for The Arabian Nights and The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. It is a book that transforms Charles Perrault’s classic fairy tale into a visual symphony—a lavish object where text and image exist in perfect, harmonious balance.
The book was conceived as a luxury artifact, befitting a story of royal courts and enchanted slumber. Issued in limited, signed editions of 500 copies for the American market and 1,000 for the British, it represented the pinnacle of fine bookmaking. Bound in vellum or rich cloth with gilt stamping, the volume promised treasures within. These treasures took the form of thirty magnificent color plates, each mounted onto heavy cream paper and protected by captioned tissue guards, accompanied by twenty delicate line drawings woven throughout the text. To hold such a book is to encounter illustration not as mere accompaniment but as the very soul of the work.
Dulac’s artistic vision for The Sleeping Beauty was shaped by a distinctive cosmopolitan sensibility. Born in Toulouse and later based in London, he drew profound inspiration from Persian and Indian miniature painting. This influence manifests in his flattened perspectives, intricate architectural details, and the jewel-like arrangement of figures across his compositions. The viewer does not peer through a window into a realistic scene but instead enters a gilded, meticulously crafted tableau where every element—from the curve of a gown to the patterning of a palace wall—exists in decorative, deliberate harmony.
The color palette employed for this edition marked a significant evolution in Dulac’s style. Moving away from the bold, vibrant hues of his earlier Arabian Nights, he embraced a softer, more luminous range of tones. Gold, amber, rose, and soft green dominate these pages, applied through delicate, layered watercolor washes that create an ethereal, dreamlike quality. His technique of subtle pen work over these washes yields images that seem to glow from within, as if illuminated by some inner light.
Among the most celebrated plates is the rendering of the princess pricking her finger on the spindle. Dulac transforms the moment into a scene of languid, tragic beauty—the princess in flowing white and gold reclines in serene collapse, her attendants frozen in poses of exquisite grace around her. Another notable image depicts the prince discovering the sleeping castle, pushing through a thicket of ancient, gnarled trees rendered in deep shadow, while beyond lies the palace bathed in golden, otherworldly light. The contrast captures the tale’s essential promise: that beauty and redemption await beyond struggle and patience.
The Sleeping Beauty represents Dulac at his artistic peak. It is a work that honors the timeless quality of Perrault’s tale while imprinting upon it a vision so distinctive, so imbued with grace and sophistication, that it became the definitive illustrated edition for generations. More than a children’s book, it is a work of fine art—a luminous object in which enchantment is made visible, plate by plate, in gold and watercolor and dream.
For collectors of this edition, these complementary works may captivate:
• Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales (1911) illustrated by Dulac – his other notable fairy tale interpretation
• The Sleeping Beauty (1920) illustrated by Arthur Rackham – offering a contrasting Art Nouveau vision
• Perrault’s Fairy Tales (1922) illustrated by W. Heath Robinson – presenting earlier Edwardian style
Other books illustrated by Edmund Dulac available in our gallery: Stories from the Arabian Nights, Lyrics, Pathetic and Humourous from A to Z, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, The Sleeping Beauty, Stories from Hans Andersen, The Bells, and other poems, Princess Badoura, Sindbad the Sailor and other stories, The Kingdom of the Pearl.
Complete list of books illustrated by Edmund Dulac.
Art Gallery: Edmund Dulac – Sleeping Beauty 1910
