The Tempest, Act III, Scene 3 (Caliban: “Sounds and sweet airs that give delight & hurt not”).
1908.
Price: $40,000.00
About the item
Watercolor, pencil and ink on paper, signed “Edmund Dulac 08” (lower left), additionally inscribed on verso: "Sounds and sweet airs that give delight & hurt not. Act III Sc. III” and numbered 31. 15 x 9-7/8 in. Matted and framed. Provenance: Countess of Lytton. Exhibited: London, Leicester Galleries, 1908. Literature: Shakespeare's Comedy of the Tempest (Hodder & Stoughton, 1908), p. 58; Hughey, Edmund Dulac: His Book Illustrations, no. 19.
Item #376452
A beautiful Dulac watercolor, an idyllic waterside scene for Caliban's "Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not," from Dulac's second major gift book commission.
The Dulac Tempest was issued as part of a projected series of Shakespeare illustrated by contemporary artists that was never completed. "Dulac can be considered a perfect illustrator for Shakespeare because of his tendency always to mix in with serious pictures some humorous ones, just as Shakespeare inserted scenes of comic relief between his serious ones … Dulac shows sensitivity to the nuances of the sea with his beautiful greens and blues and patterns of surf and rocks" (Hughey). Dulac "showed greater human understanding as the illustrations moved beyond stage scenes and became mood pictures or tone poems … Dulac's greater assurance in The Tempest was manifested in many beautifully observed scenes … The publication of The Tempest in November 1908 was again timed to coincide with the Leicester Galleries' exhibition of the original watercolours, and both the art and book critics acclaimed his work, particularly his treatment of the sea" (White, Edmund Dulac, p. 36).
