Howard Pyle: The Middle Ages

"The Flight from Falworth Castle"
in "Men of Iron"by Howard Pyle

"In the years after 'Robin Hood,' Howard Pyle was very busy with both writing and illustrating. 'Otto of the Silver Hand,' a story of the adventures of a brave little fellow in the Rhineland, was published in 1888. Joseph Pennell observed that, 'The full pages, though reproduced by process, look like old woodblocks; the head and tailpieces might be mistaken at a glance for Durer's.'

'Men of Iron,' a stirring tale of England in the troublous times of Henry IV came next. Its illustrations marked a great change in technology. The pen-and-ink work used before was abandoned, and black-and-white oils were reproduced by photographic process. With this new medium Pyle was able to get a more solid, a more realistic effect.*

About 1900, or a little after, improvements in the methods of color reproduction were made, and he began to turn his attention to paintings in full colors. For Harper's he began a series of full-color illustrations for medieval stories by other authors, including Mark Twain's 'Joan of Arc.' These pictures with their gorgeous harmonies of brilliant colors made a lasting impression both on the publishers and on the public and Pyle was in great demand. 

In 1903 Pyle proposed writing and illustrating the story of King Arthur to Scribner's, who enthusiastically accepted. In spite of the thousand and one other calls on his energy, the book grew from one to four volumes. 'The Story of King Arthur and His Knights' made its appearance in time for Christmas 1903. 'The Story of the Champions of the Round Table' appeared in 1905, 'The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions' in 1907, and 'The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur' in 1910.

As an expression of Howard Pyle's own feelings about these books, he wrote: 'My ambition in days gone by was to write a really notable adult book, but now I am glad that I have made literary friends of the children rather than older folk. In one's mature years, one forgets the books that one reads, but the stories of childhood leave an indelible impression, and their author always has a niche in the temple of memory from which the image is never cast out to be thrown into the rubbish heap of things that are outgrown and outlived.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Howard Pyle, A Chronicle" by Charles D. Abbott.) 

* For pictures for "Men of Iron" see: https://www.sightswithin.com/Howard.Pyle/Page_5/