The Red Rose Girls: Howard Pyle

Howard Pyle's students painting in Chadds Ford, 1899

"When Violet Oakley walked into Howard Pyle's illustration class in 1897, she noticed Jessie Smith immediately and was intimidated by her skill and confidence. 'Still a little afraid of you - as that first day in Howard Pyle's class!' she wrote to her friend thirty-three years later. Elizabeth Green was also in the group, although she made no immediate impression on Oakley. Like Smith, Green was a charter member of Pyle's first class and an established professional illustrator.

It is not surprising that when the Drexel Institute announced that Pyle would teach an illustration class, the course was immediately oversubscribed to be admitted. Howard Pyle began his teaching career at the age of forty-one, at a time when the high demand for magazine illustrations coincided with a decisive drop in their quality. He felt it was especially important that the artists who worked for publication have the most rigorous training possible. 

In the 1880s he produced a steady flow of work himself, countless illustrations for magazines and drawings for the books that he wrote as well as illustrated. In five years he had written and illustrated six books, and in the next eight years he produced more than one thousand illustrations for books and periodicals. Initially he was able to offer instruction only on Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. However, during the first two years his class was so successful that the president of Drexel persuaded him to extend his commitment to to teach two days a weeks, on Mondays and Fridays.

The rest of the week his students worked on their paintings at home. On the days when they did attend class, instruction began at nine o'clock in the morning with consultation and criticism, followed by life drawing. After lunch, courses in composition and practical illustration augmented the curriculum. In spite of this somewhat irregular schedule, Howard Pyle proved to be a charismatic, innovative instructor who treated everyone with patience and impartiality. He was an unselfish man, proud of his students' accomplishments. When any of them began to show professional promise, he was quick to recommend their work to the many distinguished art editors who trusted his judgment implicitly. Many of his best students began working professionally while still enrolled in his classes."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Red Rose Girls: Art and Love on Philadelphia's Main Line" by Alice A. Carter.)