The Snow Queen Flies Through the Winter's Night 

Edmund Dulac made this watercolour painting, The Snow Queen Flies Through the Winter's Night, in the early 20th century. We see a queen made of snow flying above the roofs of a sleeping town, guarded by a great cathedral. Dulac was born in France but spent most of his working life in Britain. His art was a product of what we call the ‘Golden Age’ of illustration, when new printing technologies allowed fine art to be reproduced in books and magazines, making it accessible to the public. The fairy tale was a particularly popular subject. Dulac’s work was influenced by Japanese prints, Persian miniatures, and the Pre-Raphaelites. But he was also responding to the social conditions of his own time, when the trauma of the First World War had generated a hunger for fantasy. His work offers us an escape from reality, but it also reminds us of the power of art to shape our understanding of the world. To understand Dulac’s work fully, we need to examine the history of illustration, the market for fantasy art, and the cultural context of wartime Britain.