Howard Pyle
A Portrait of Howard Pyle
|
"Lancelot", from: Tennyson, Alfred. The Lady of Shalott
|
"When All the World was Young"
|
(Click on pictures for larger image...)
"The earth and the air and the sky were all still, just as it is at twilight, and I heard them laughing and talking in the tap-room of the Inn of the Sign of Mother Goose -- the linking of glasses, and the rattling and clatter of knives and forks and plates and dishes. That is where I wished to go. So in I went. Mother Goose herself opened the door, and there I was.
"The room was full of twilight; but there they sat, every one of them. I did not count them, but there were ever so many: Aladdin, and Ali Baba, and Fortunatis, and Jack-the-Giant-Killer, and Doctor Faustus, and Bidpai, and Cinderella, and Patient Grizzle, and the Soldier who cheated the Devil, and St. George, and Hans in Luck, who traded and traded his lump of gold until he had only an empty churn to show for it; and there was Sinbad the Sailor, and the Tailor who killed seven flies at a blow, and the
Fisherman who fished up the Genie, and the Lad who fiddled for the Jew in the Bramble Bush, and the Blacksmith who made death sit in his appletree, and Boots, who always marries the princess, whether he wants to or not -- a rag-tag lot as ever you saw in your life, gathered from every place, and brought together in Twilight Land.
"Each one of them was telling a story . . ."
| |
- From Twilight Land, a collection of stories written and illustrated by Howard Pyle. |
"Do you know an American magazine called Harper's Monthly? There are things in it which strike me dumb with admiration, including sketches of a Quaker town in the olden days by Howard Pyle."
| |
- Vincent van Gogh, in a letter to his brother, Theo
quoted in N.C. Wyeth: A Biography |
- Sex:
M
- Born:
March 5, 1853 in Wilmington, Delaware
- Died:
November 9, 1911
- Buried:
Florence, Italy
- Notes:
Howard Pyle was a renowned artist, writer, and teacher. Known as one of America's best loved illustrators and founder of the Brandywine school of painting, Pyle had an enormous impact on the world of American illustration.
Pyle was a Quaker and attended the Friends' School in Wilmington. But, as Pyle himself later recalled, "he spent his time largely in scrawling drawings on his slate and in his books". Realizing their son's lack of interest in studying, the Pyle's gave up their idea of sending Howard to college and instead his mother encouraged him to study art. At sixteen he began three years of daily commutes to Philadelphia in order to study under the Belgian artist Van der Weilen.
These classes would be the only systematic training in art that Pyle would receive and provided a solid foundation in the technique of drawing.
After 3 years of study, he setup a studio in Wilmington and helped his father in his leather business while beginning his fledgling career as an illustrator. His earliest work was published in Scribner's Monthly in 1876. He moved to New York, where he was associated to some extent with the Art Students' league of New York City during 1876-77. His early illustrations, short stories and poems appeared in the leading New York periodicals in 1876-79.
He was a well known artist and writer for Harpers Weekly.
Pyle devoted his art work almost entirely to the production of illustrations which appeared in periodicals and books.
He is the author and illustrator of the following works: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Nottinghamshire (1883); Within the Capes (1885); Pepper and Salt, or Seasoning for Young Folk (1887); The Rose of Paradise (1887); The Wonder Clock or Four and Twenty Marvelous Tales (1888); Otto of the Silver Hand (1888); A Modern Aladdin (1891); Men of Iron, a Romance of Chivalry (1892); Jack Ballister's Fortune (1894); Twilight Land (1895);
The Garden Behind the Moon (1895).
In 1910, Howard Pyle relocated his family to Florence, Italy where he hoped to study and pursue the painting of murals - drawing on the expertise of the Old World. It was his second trip abroad. In November of 1911, he suddenly became ill and died of a kidney infection at the age of 58. His ashes were interred there.
Father: William Pyle, b. October 12, 1820 in Sadsbury, PA -- son of Isaac Pyle and Ann Webb
Mother: Margaret Churchman Painter, b. October 4, 1828
Family 1: Annie Poole, b. August 1, 1858 -- daughter of J. Morton Poole and Ann Suplee
April 12, 1881
- Sellers Poole Pyle, b. June 4, 1882
- Phoebe C. Pyle, b. 1886
- Theodore Pyle, b. 1889
- Howard Pyle, b. 1891
- Eleanor Pyle, b.1894
- Godfrey Pyle, b.1895
- Wilfred Pyle, b. 1897
Sources:
- "Descendants of Sarah Lloyd and Gainor Lloyd" by John J. Parker, The Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, PA.
- The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume IIV
- The Illustrators Project: Howard Pyle (1853-1911)
- Howard Pyle and Twilight Land
Please send corrections, additions or comments to Vici Churchman
