EXTRACTS: Pirates! Illustrators Special Edition © 2020 The Book Palace (128 PAGES in Full edition)

73 Howard Pyle Regarded as the Father of American illustration, Howard Pyle was a true innovator, not only for the virtuos‐ ity of his paint and brush technique, but also for the fact of “immersing himself ” intowhat he was depicting on canvas. As Pyle used to tell his students, “Throw your heart into the picture, and then jump in after it.” As to Pyle’s artistic talent, listen to the remark a contemporary of his, Vincent Van Gogh, said when writing to his brother Theo about a picture he had seen of Pyle’s in a magazine: “[That picture] struck me dumb with admiration.” And he had only seen it as a print in black and white! What would Van Gogh have felt had he seen the actual painting? Although much of Pyle’s art was created for popular magazines, and done as illustrations, he was a master of his craft. He had a way of bringing to life what he depicted on canvas. When you look at his painting ‘The Buccaneer was a Picturesque Fellow’ ( see image at left ), featuring a dashing fellow on the forefront with handsome features, gypsy looks and flamboyant clothing, you ask youselves, did pirates really look like that?Who cares, what we we see here FACING PAGE: The Buccaneer Was a Picturesque Fellow , oil on canvas, 1905. This image appeared for the first time in Harper’s Monthly Magazine , December 1905, illustrating Pyle’s own story ‘The Fate of a Treasure Town’. It has also been used in some of his pirate book collections. BELOW: So The Treasure Was Divided , oil on canvas, 1905. Pirates dividing their loot. This image was also used for ‘The Fate of a Treasure Town’ in Harper’s Monthly .