A short life, a few evocative works, this was the lot of Charles-Marie Dulac (1866-1898). Yet in that time he traveled far from his native Paris, visiting Avignon, Ravenna, and Assisi. 
After his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1893, Dulac illustrated a new edition of The Canticle of the Creatures by St. Francis of Assisi, published by Lemercier in 1894. The original of Sister Water, Brother Fire (top left) is now in the collection of the Musee D'Orsay. Dulac also changed his name to Marie-Charles, complicating the search for biographical information.
His art suggests that, like St. Francis, Dulac did much of his traveling on foot. Also, if the evidence of these tranquil works is accurate, Dulac seems to have preferred solitary contemplation above all. The late dates (1897, 1898) of his Italian scenes suggest that his pilgrimage was Dulac's final journey. He died in Paris at age thirty-two.
5 comments:
Another of your beloved tonalists, with sky and trees and water all blending into an overall pattern. Lovely.
Dulac's paintings are so beautiful, so serene. I especially like his compositions. Thank you for writing about Dulac and his artwork.
Thank you, Susanna. Unfortunately, much of Dulac's work is located either in museums without digitized collections or, because of the vagaries of fashion, not included in many books about the period.
Hi Jane. Thank you very much for your article. We have a painting by Dulac in the next auction on th e 15th Mai 2009 at Van-Ham fine art in cologne. Estimation 7000 EUR. If you give me your Email I can send you the JPG. The Painting shows the wood in Fontainebleau. Yours Bernd Mengel, Old master and 19th century paintings and drawings, b.mengel@van-ham.com
Nice to hear from you. I will email you today.
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