Benjamin Lacombe's Ondine

© Image Benjamin Lacombe. 
"Ondine" cover "Ondine" ed Albin Michel, 2012 
Gouache and oil on paper 43 x 75 cm Inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites, of course, Millais, Rossetti & Waterhouse

From what I can gather, amazing illustrator Benjamin Lacombe is hard at work on a book retelling the tale of Ondine (or Undine), another of my favorite tales (yes, I have many.)

While there's not much information on his blog beyond this, posted on December 31  last year...

The image of this Card is extracted from my upcoing book, to be published in spring in France by Albin Michel, Ondine (I'll talk about soon) ..

... his Faceboook has a small collection of stunning artwork from the book, with the most recent painting posted just this Thursday. I've included the various notes per image he wrote regarding titles, inspirations and a nice teaser for the last image posted here.

© Image Benjamin Lacombe 
"The Nightmare" 2012 
Gouache & Oil on paper 

Ondine (ed Albin Michel, 2012)

 According to his notes the book will simply be titled Ondine and it appears that he's doing both the writing and the illustrating (no confirmation available) . Although the chances of an English edition are slim, I can still hope. In the meantime, the French edition is definitely going on my wish list and Spring in France, which is the release is planned for, is very soon...

© Image Benjamin Lacombe 
Portrait of Ondine, 2012 
Gouache and oil on paper 43 x75cm 
Extracted from Ondine Ed Albin Michel

© Image Benjamin Lacombe. Extracted from "Ondine" ed Veil 
"Loss" 2012 
Gouache and oil on paper This image appears in a surprising way (and in 3 parts) in the book, you'll see!

Wouldn't it be amazing to see these paintings in person?

Frankly, I don't really care what languages the book is available in as long as I can get one. Gorgeous.