100 Years of Illustration

Enjoy your vacation with William J. Aylward

"Castle Island [Boston Harbor] where the ships go by" is the title and it's from The Port of the Puritans, by Winfield M. Thompson, published in the August 1911 edition of Harper's Monthly Magazine. 

Click on images to enlarge them.

Thompson was a travel writer with a vast knowledge of Maine and New England, to judge from the Google entries in his name. I have no bio information on him and we don't much about Bill Aylward, who was one of the great painters and illustrators of his time. There should be no argument there. I'm using examples of his work to set the tone for August vacations. I hope you have an enjoyable one. Meanwhile, here's a link to some previous material I've posted here about Aylward and his excellent work.

"The Waterside Life at Mystic [Connecticut] is a happy blending of old and new" also by Winfield M. Thompson from the September 1916 edition of Harper's Monthly Magazine.

  

"Lovely Nantucket is the aristocrat of the coast towns," by Mary Heaton Vorse, from the December 1918 edition of Harper's Monthly Magazine. I haven't been there for a few years but I can't imagine that this view and others like it have changed much since then -- even if there is a blight on the island of huge ugly trophy homes.

"New Bedford Whalers -- the last of a gallant but passing race," from the same article. 

William J. Aylward – 2

Photos of Aylward are extremely scarce. This is a young Bill Aylward seated on the grass next to Anna Whelen Betts at Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1903. Standing directly behind them is their teacher Howard Pyle. Clifford Ashley is at the top, right. This is a portion of a photograph which appears in Henry Pitz's great book "The Brandywine Tradition," published in 1968 by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, copyright 1968 by Henry C. Pitz.

"Contrasts," from Scribner's Monthly Magazine for March 1905. Aylward must have painted this just after he went out on his own after leaving Pyle's studio.

These are more than illustrations. They are marine paintings and they are as good as they get. A lot of illustrators have tried to work these subjects but so many of the results look about as real as the ship models they use in battle scenes for period-piece movies. Click on each of them for an enlarged image. This is "The Evacuation of Boston," for which I do not have a date or a publication so I'll speculate that it was part of the group shown below which appeared in and Harper's Monthly Magazine within a few years of the others.

"The 'Chesapeake's' Mizzentop During the Battle." From Harper's Monthly Magazine for March 1912.

"The Surrender of the 'Guerriere'." From Harper's Monthly Magazine for March 1912.

"Perry Transferring His Flag from the 'Lawrence'." From Harper's Monthly Magazine for August 1913.

"The 'Niagara' Raking the 'Detroit' and the 'Queen Charlotte'." From Harper's Monthly Magazine for August 1913.

William J. Aylward – 1

There's not a lot to learn about Bill Aylward's life because not much has been documented. We know that he was born in Milwaukee, studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Student's League in New York City. Along with Clifford Ashley, another famous illustrator of marine subjects, he studied with Howard Pyle. Aylward also taught at the Newark (NJ) School while illustrating for magazines such as Scribner's, Harper's, and Collier's. At the age of 43, he volunteered to go to France with the American Expeditionary Force and record their actions in World War I. However, his paintings speak for themselves. He was one of the most skillful handlers of watercolor who can be mentioned in the same breath with Winslow Homer. The following examples attempt to show his great latitude and great competence in both the knowledge of his subjects and his exquisite handling of color and brush. Click on each image to enlarge the illustration.

This is from "The Wicked 'Celestine," a story by James B. Connolly, a noted author of marine lore and history, which appeared in Scribner's Monthly Magazine for June of 1905.

A Singapore Junk at Sea, from "The Water-life Around Singapore,"from Harper's Monthly Magazine for December 1909.

This should remind you of Winslow Homer (A web search should turn up scores of examples of his work). It's from "Grim Grand Manan," an illustrated article about life on this island off the coast of Maine which appeared in Harper's Monthly Magazine for August 1912.

This is another beauty. Unfortunately, it was not printed in all four colors necessary for process color production. It's from "Harbor Voyages," which appeared in Harper's Monthly Magazine for January 1915.

This is another example of Aylward's great skill from Harper's Monthly Magazine for September 1915.

"The Boat Race at New London–A Brilliant Water Pageant," from the lead article entitiled "The Nutmeg Coast" in Harper's Monthly Magazine for September 1916.

"The Democratic Landing at Boothbay Harbor," from another lead article, "Maine and the Summer Sea," from Harper's Monthly Magazine for August 1917.

Next: More William J. Aylward.