100 Years of Illustration

Shepperson: The Diary of a Goose Girl, 1901

It's not a simple task to track down biographical information about Claude A. Shepperson. He was British, born in 1867 and departed this life in 1921, just a few years after a tour of duty as a war artist (nearing the age of 50) in World War I. Some of his pictures may be seen at this Tate Gallery link. Most of his illustrations below may be enlarged by clicking on the image.

Inasmuch as we were discussing black and white line in pen and ink, I thought you might like to admire some of the work he did for three installments for Scribner's Magazine in the issues of May, June and July of 1901. Kate Douglas Wiggin is the author of the childrens' classic Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

Not only was Shepperson superb at drawing animals but he was equally great at depicting people of all ages. Add to that his wonderful feeling for figures in action. These illustrations were done in an age when serious illustration was often as stiff as the subjects depicted. Often that was exacerbated by the ponderous techniques used that got in the way of the story. Shepperson's work is straight forward, extremely competent, and without the heavy hand of virtuosity. I was very happy to discover his work and I'm delighted to offer it here.

Gibson's Influence

Orson Lowell, 1871-1956, was a master draftsman considered to be in many ways superior to Gibson in his pen-and-ink renderings, but he didn't have the clout that Gibson had. Personally, I think it's more about the characters than technique. The Gibson Girl seemed to have personality that transcended the medium of print. She was to artwork what Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot were for photography.

May Wilson Preston, 1873-1949, was her own person, strong-willed and dynamic, and a fighter for women's rights. It's evident in her style that is not in the least derivative. She owed nothing to Gibson, despite his enormous influence at the time.

May Wilson Preston is one of my favorites and I hope to be posting more of her work soon. Click on image to enlarge.

Harrison Fisher, 1875-1934, got in the American Girl theme and segued from magazine illustrations to portraits of celebs.

Howard Chandler Christy, 1873-1952, was another. This is not one of his best and the reproduction is messy. He did a lot of very nice portraits after he left the magazine business. One of his finest is that of First Lady Grace (Mrs. Calvin) Coolidge. Here's another link to more of his work.

James Montgomery Flagg, 1877-1960, was a child prodigy who sold his first illustration at the age of 12, according to his bio in this hotlink. He was a blatant imitator of Gibson and probably got a lot of work because of the astronomical (at the time) prices that Gibson demanded.

He was even signing like Gibson in this illustration for the December 1906 issue of Scribner's.

By August of 1907 he was using a signature that was much more legible and certainly helped to establish his bona fides. Click on these images to enlarge.

This is from Scribner's of February 1909.

Finally, Monty Flagg's most famous illustration, produced to promote enlistments in the U.S. military at the time of World War I. It has become an icon for almost a century.

Another of my favorites is Florence Scovil Shinn, 1871-1940. She obviously didn't feel compelled to scratch away with her pen in homage to Gibson. She, too, will reappear in these postings at a later date. She became famous in a later career as a motivational writer and speaker.

She was one of four wives of the notorious Ashcan School painter Everett Shinn, 1876-1953.

The Gibson Girl: Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

The Gibson Girl was created by Charles Dana Gibson, one of the many illustrators selling their work to publishers of periodicals in Manhttan in the 1890s.

He was born in the Roxbury section of Boston on 14 September 1867, one of five children to a former lieutenant of the Union army in the Civil War and his energetic and generous wife. His father was an amateur artist who encouraged the boy's talent and taught him what he knew. Gibson was fortunate enough to be sent at high school age to the Art Students League in New York City where Thomas Eakins and William Merrit Chase taught. In two years he was forced to leave and find work to ease the financial strain his education imposed on the modest means of his family. He made the rounds of New York publishers and sold a small drawing (a dog chained to a post) to the old Life magazine in 1886. This was the beginning of a 30-year association with Life.

In time he acquired many more clients and was earning enough to rent his own studio. In 1889, when this illustration shown above appeared in The Century magazine for March he had saved enough money to finance a trip to London and Paris. The technique shown in this drawing is what I would call slash and scratch. It was all that most illustrators ever mastered in black and white, and is to be found as well in the work of most cartoonists of the period. It is a far cry from his famous, and so often poorly imitated, brilliant later style shown directly below.

While in England Gibson met the very famous writer, illustrator and wit, George du Maurier whose lyrical style of pen-and-ink illustration set him high above the rest of his peers. However good du Maurier was in depicting beautiful women, Gibson surpassed him. He became supercharged as a result of finally meeting his idol and returned to New York revitalized and truly reinvented himself with his "Gibson Girls."

This is a scan of an original Gibson drawing of 1903 entitled "The Weaker Sex," which the artist gave to the Library of Congress in 1935. Click on it, and the images above, to enlarge.

The incredibly beautiful teenage showgirl, Evelyn Nesbit, was the subject of this famous Gibson drawing entitled "Women: the Eternal Question," and published in 1905 when Nesbit was probably only 18. Evelyn Nesbit was the nubile object of prominent but profligate architect Stanford White's affection and the obsession of his murderer, the infamous Harry Thaw.

Next: Gibson imitators, and how they missed the mark.

Howard Pyle: An Appreciation

I hope you haven't been bored with all the attention paid to Howard Pyle. He was not only one of the very best illustrators of all time but he generously shared his talent and knowledge with his younger peers. Nobody has ever done for his fellow man what this giant did in his lifetime.

The greatest testament to Howard Pyle is the roster of brilliant talent that follows, and they comprise but a partial list of those who were fortunate enough to attend his classes or work in his studio.

C.W. (Clifford Warren) Ashley, 1881-1947. The Christmas Exile, from Scribner's Monthly Magazine for December 1909.

W.J. (William James) Aylward, 1875-1956. The Waterside Life at Mystic (CT). An illustration for The Nutmeg Coast, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for September 1916.

Anna Whelan Betts, dates unknown. Nelly Custis in the Mount Vernon Garden, from The Century Magazine for May 1906.

Harvey Dunn, 1884-1952. Something for Supper, 1943. A painting in the collection of the
South Dakota Art Museum.

Elizabeth Shippen Green, 1871-1954. Jehane, the Constant Lover, from "The Navarrese," by James Branch Cabell, Harper's Monthly Magazine for September 1907. Shippen Green was one of the best and the most prolific of Pyle's students. (She had also studied with the noted painter Thomas Eakins.) This is not typical of her magazine work which was largely illustrations of children. However, it is one of my favorites.

Click on top image to enlarge the entire painting.

Illustrations don't get better than this. Despite the crude color separations and printing it's still a dazzling portrait. Another lovely portrait.

Violet Oakley, 1874-1961. The Easter Hymn, from The Century Magazine for March 1904.

Thornton Oakley, 1881-1955. A colleague and friend, but not the husband of Violet Oakley, as I had always assumed. Setting Out for a Tiger Hunt. Illustration for On the Indian Railway, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for October 1916.

Maxfield Parrish, 1870-1966. I am Sick of Being a Princess. Illustration for The Princess and the Boy, from The Century Magazine for December 1904.

More Parrish illustrations of the period.

Jessie Willcox Smith, 1863-1935. Illustration for Dickens's Children: Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchit on Christmas Day. One of four illustrations from Scribner's Monthly Magazine for December 1910.

Thanks to author Michael Glaser, here's a link to Smith, Green and Oakley, The Red Rose Girls.

Sarah S. Stilwell-Weber, 1878-1939. In October, from Scribner's Monthly Magazine for October 1905. Click on her link listed in the Categories section for more examples of her work.

E.A. (Edward Arthur) Wilson, 1886-1970. Illustration from Iron Men and Wooden Ship, a collection of Sea Chanteys, first published by Doubleday in 1924.

N.C. (Newell Converse) Wyeth, 1882-1945. Famous as a book illustrator and father of painter Andrew Wyeth. Illustration for On the Fourth Day Comes the Astrologer from his Crumbling Old Tower, by Mark Twain, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for July 1916.

Next: Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944) and His Imitators

Howard Pyle's Civil War

The American Civil War raged not far from Howard Pyle's boyhood home of Wilmington, Delaware, where troop trains rattled south to Washington and the battlefields beyond. Crowded hospital railroad cars full of the sick and wounded and cattle cars crammed with CSA prisoners made their way north. Along the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal boys his age did what they could to help the sick and wounded who filled the canal barges. Pyle's Civil War memories went back as little in time as those of the middle aged today recalling the Vietnamese Civil War. He would have no trouble finding uniforms and weapons with which to outfit his models or visualizing the scenes his editors requested for his memory of those desperate days was vivid.

The Charge, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for November 1904.

"I Thought of You When I Was Falling." He Said Vaguely, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for November 1904.

Abraham Lincoln. Illustration for "Lincoln's Last Day" from Harper's Monthly Magazine for September 1907.

The Midnight Court Martial, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for September 1909.

They Talked it Over –– With Me Sitting on a Horse, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for November 1909.

It Was a Comrade From His Own Regiment, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for November 1909.

General [Robert E.] Lee on His Famous Charger "Traveller," from Harper's Monthly Magazine for February 1911.

>>>For the gentleman who asked me the size of the painting: It's 24-1/8 x 16 inches and can probably be seen either at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington DE or at the Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford PA. They are not far from each other if you're down that way. Better phone them first to determine the whereabouts of the painting if you want to see it. AOL lost this mail so I could not answer you directly.<<<

Howard Pyle died in Florence, Italy, on the ninth of November in that same year.

Next: Howard Pyle: An Appreciation