Title Page for "The Wonder Clock, or Four & Twenty Marvelous Tales, Being One for Each Hour of the Day"

Howard Pyle|Katharine Pyle

1887 · Pen and black ink · Drawings and Prints

Pyle is considered the father of American illustration. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, he became interested in art and writing as a boy, studied in Philadelphia and then New York, at the Art Students League. In 1878, a drawing accepted by Harper's Weekly helped to launch his career and the artist returned to Delaware in 1880. Over the next three decades Pyle wrote and illustrated a series of now iconic works and became an influential teacher. Aware of contemporary European innovations, he skillfully adapted his style to suit a range of subjects. This design, centered on a faun entertaining animals and birds, became the title page of "The Wonder Clock," which Harper Brothers published in 1888 (see MMA 65.518.24 for a 1915 reissue).

Artist

Howard Pyle|Katharine Pyle

Date

1887

Medium

Pen and black ink

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1926; transfered to the Print Department, 1967