American Illustration
Gallery 7
Sue Ann and John L. Weinberg Gallery
In the second half of the 19th century, America’s publishing industry entered a robust period of growth. More and more illustrations were needed to fill the increasing number of books and magazines available at every price level. At the same time, technological advances transformed the method of replication for illustrations. The Delaware Art Museum’s large collection of work from illustration’s golden age (1870-1940) and beyond reflects the changes in printing technology, the consolidation of the discipline, the variety of artists who worked in the field, and the different styles of this art form.
Already a prominent illustrator, Howard Pyle began teaching illustration at Philadelphia’s Drexel Institute in 1894. Pyle’s classes only accepted students who had already mastered the basics of drawing and painting; he taught them how to apply their artistic and imaginative skills to illustrate specific texts. Among Pyle’s students at Drexel were Stanley Arthurs, Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Violet Oakley, and Maxfield Parrish.
In 1898, Pyle offered some of his more promising students an opportunity to continue their studies during the summer at his family’s property in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. This summer program ran for only five years, but it fueled Pyle’s decision to open his own art school adjacent to his studio in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1900. Pyle carefully selected the students for his school; among them were Frank Schoonover, N. C. Wyeth, Ethel Pennewill Brown, Thornton Oakley, Olive Rush, Harvey Dunn, and Gayle Porter Hoskins.
The work in this gallery provides an overview of illustrations by Pyle and his students, as well as examples from the larger continuum of American illustration, including work by John Held, Jr., the Leyendecker brothers, and Mead Schaeffer, a student of two of Pyle’s students. |
