N.C. WYETH (1882-1945)

Standish Reading / "Heading Canto II". Illustration for page 17 of The Courtship of Miles Standish, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1920). Pen and ink on paper. 101x177 mm; 4x7 inches, on 9½x14-inch sheet. Cornered to window matte; framed. Provenance: The Kelly Collection of American Illustration.Exhibited and Reproduced: The Art of the Elegant Line: Works from the Kelly Collection of American Illustration, Flippo Gallery, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, VA February 16-April 4, 2003. Catalogue number 33.The most successful and famous student of Howard Pyle, the "Father of Modern Illustration," Wyeth became one of the most important American illustrators in the canon. He was best known for dramatic depictions of historical scenes for literary classics through the widely-distributed Scribner's Classics series in the 1910s and 20s. In that tradition, his beautiful pen work for this book, published in commemoration of the first "Pilgrim Tercentenary" and hailed as one of the best gift books of that year, captures the essence of Longfellow's narrative poem about Plymouth Colony's famous love triangle.