“The Real Princess”
How about a fairy tale for today?
This lovely illustration, titled “The Real Princess” but more commonly referred to as “The Princess and the Pea,” is by the French artist and illustrator, Edmund Dulac, from 1911. Dulac is one of the many great artists who came to prosperity in the early twentieth century during the Golden Age of Illustration. The image seen here is a colored plate, but was originally drawn by Dulac using watercolor, gouache, pen, and ink on paper.
The story of “The Real Princess” (“The Princess and the Pea”) was first published in 1835. It was one of many fairy tales that Hans Christian Andersen featured in Tales, Told for Children, First Collection. In this very story, a prince is looking for a real princess to marry. Each woman that presents themselves as a real princess turns out to not be a true princess. When the heroine in this story shows up to the prince’s castle during a rainstorm, she presents herself as a princess. The prince’s mother tests the girl by inviting her to stay the night, and then places a single pea in between 20 mattresses and 20 quilts. The girl has a hard time getting any sleep and wakes up bruised by the pea. Her royal sensitivity indicates to the prince that the girl is actually a real princess. The two get married and the pea is put on permanent display in a museum. Hans Christian Andersen has stated that he first this story when he was a child in the early 1800s in Odense, Denmark.
In this piece, Dulac depicts the princess sitting on top of layers of mattresses and bedding. She is sitting up, looking uncomfortable. Unbeknownst to the princess, there is a pea stuck between the bedding. Her gentle and sensitive royal blood immediately senses the pea as a hard spot in the bedding, negatively affecting her sleep. If you look closely, you can see the pea atop the blue and white checkered bedding, depicted as recently tumbled out from the bedding.
Dulac displays a wonderful use of perspective to aid in the storytelling. The low vantage point helps depict the immensity of the number of mattresses and bedding, adding to the fantastical element of noticing a pea amongst so many layers. He also adds wonderful details, such as the tapestry of a hunt hung along the wall behind the bed, and the exposed wood detailing the bedroom ceiling above. On the bottom side of the curtains above the bed, the fabric is pulled into the center. Dulac’s use of lines to show the tautness of the fabric draws the viewer’s eyes up to the top of the image, across the many layers of bedding.
Dulac originally illustrated “The Real Princess” for Stories from Hans Christian Andersen, with Illustrations by Edmund Dulac. Other stories in this book include “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Snow Queen,” and “The Mermaid.” This book was published by Hodder & Stoughton of London, England in 1911. The illustration is located in the frontispiece, referencing the story written on pages 112 and 113 with the accompanying text: ‘I have hardly closed my eyes the whole night! Heaven knows what was in the bed. I seemed to be lying upon some hard thing, and my whole body is black and blue this morning. It is terrible!’.
Dulac re-used this image in his 1915 book, Edmund Dulac’s Picture Book for the French Red Cross. This second title was also published by Hodder & Stoughton to help provide funds for the French Red Cross during the Great War. Dulac was one of the earliest artists to successfully employ colored plates, which were stored between pages, and not bound to the spine.
The original 1911 edition of Stories from Hans Christian Andersen, with Illustrations by Edmund Dulac can be viewed in its entirety here.
For more on Edmund Dulac, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
