Elizabeth Shippen Green - 2

This appeared in Harper's Monthly Magazine for August 1902 and is a good example of Green's charcoal technique coupled with her appreciation of the art and decorations she became fond of during her six years of study and travel in Europe during the last decade of the XIXth Century. Richard Le Gallienne was famous as an English poet who travelled in avant-garde circles with other luminaries such as Oscar Wilde and the great caricaturist Max Beerbohm.

Click on the following images to enlarge.

It's a pity that reproduction was so poor in the magazine. Fortunately, we now have access to computer programs that allow us to digitally clean up and enhance images that are dark and smudgy. It must have quite a coup for Green to be assigned the illustrations for Le Gallienne's Perdita stories that appeared in several issues of Harper's for that year.

Charcoal on board printed with a tint block for an earlier Perdita story from Harper's Monthly Magazine for March 1902. This was probably drawn with the help of photos as reference.

We know from documents in the Library of Congress that Green was one of the early users of photos to help her with the poses of characters in her illustrations. This, from Harper's Monthly Magazine for June 1905 was done with the aid of a photo, entitled "Girl Kneeling," a gelatin silver print in the collection of Ben and Jane Eisenstat. The link is courtesy of the Swann Gallery and the Library of Congress exhibition of Green's work entitled A Petal from the Rose.

Here are two more which look to have been done with the aid of photos from Harper's Monthly Magazine for October 1905.

These two, in color, are from Harper's Monthly Magazine for December 1904 and a story entitled, "The Thousand Quilt." Watercolor over charcoal appears to be the medium used.

Comments

[Ed Nudelman]

Dear Paul,
What a beautiful piece indeed!! I wrote the
definitive bibliography of the works of Jessie Willcox Smith (1989, Pelican) and a biography the next year (Pelican). I wonder if you might take a look at my new website devoted to original illustrations by brandywine artists? ES Green was one of my alltime favorites. Any suggestions on contacts (either institutions or personal contacts) that might like to see our website? We could sure use the help. Thanks so much. Ed Nudelman